On June 1, 2023, Lufthansa's first commercial flight with the Airbus A380 in three years took off. The aircraft, designated D-AIMK, has operated flight LH424 between Munich Airport (MUC) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). The Airbus A380 returned to the German flag carrier's fleet after being stored for more than three years owing to a lack of demand for air travel and the aircraft's exorbitant operating expenses during the COVID-19 epidemic.
The aircraft departed MUC at 4:01 PM local time (UTC +2) and is scheduled to arrive at BOS at 5:54 PM local time (UTC -5), according to flightradar24.com data. Throughout the previous two weeks, the Airbus A380 and its crews have conducted numerous training and familiarization flights, visiting numerous European locations as pilots re-acquainted themselves with the aircraft.
Lufthansa, like many other airlines that formerly used the Airbus A380, has decommissioned the model in response to increased travel demand during the epidemic. While the German airline firm has said that the plane may not have an extended existence with the company, at least six A380s might rejoin the fleet by 2024.
The airline located at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) has planned many flights from MUC operated by A380, including to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK), BOS, and New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Lufthansa once operated up to 14 Airbus A380 planes. Earlier in the pandemic, Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa CEO, said that Airbus A380 will never be a part of the fleet and it's the era ended for the quadrant aircraft. Surprisingly, most of the CEOs who once stated that it was the end for the A380, including Qatar Airways CEO who said that buying A380 was his 'biggest mistake', were forced to return the jumbo jet back to service amid to surge in travel demand. That proves that other CEOs who maintained the type in their fleet were right about it, including Sir Tim Clark of Emirates.