33 Routes: Where Is The Airbus A380 Flying This Week?

Emirates, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, China Southern, and Korean Air have A380 flights this week. Between them, there are 33 routes, with 566 round-trip flights. While Emirates has nearly nine in ten flights, it’s great to see BA and Singapore Airlines again using the type.

Emirates has 500 of the 566 A380 flights worldwide this week. Photo: Emirates.

Just 25% of pre-pandemic A380 flights

In the week beginning November 19th, there are 566 A380 movements (take-offs and landings combined) by the A380. That’s up by almost half (48%) over what was available just one month ago and double the number (104%) versus the height of the summer, based on examining schedules submitted to OAG.

There’s no doubt that the recovery is going in the right direction, with capacity and flights generally reflecting growing demand, itself based on borders reopening, fewer other restrictions, and higher consumer confidence. But there’s still a huge amount of ground to recover.

While there are 566 movements this week, that is just one-quarter of the 2,244 in a comparable week in 2019. Then, 14 airlines used the double-decker quadjet, but now it’s only five. However, Qatar Airways will resume use in December and Qantas next year.

There are between 77 and 83 A380 movements a day this week. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

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Who is doing what this week?

British Airways presently has two active A380s (G-XLEF/XLEG). They’re flying daily between Heathrow and Frankfurt (BA902/903) and Madrid (BA462/463) for crew training and refamiliarization ahead of their return to long-haul service.

Whichever aircraft is operating on a particular day operates Heathrow-Frankfurt-Heathrow-Madrid-Heathrow. There’s a 90-minute turn in Germany and Spain and a three-hour layover at Heathrow in-between rotations.

1. Emirates: 500 A380 flights (88.3% of the total) across 25 routes
2. British Airways: 28 (4.9%); Heathrow to Frankfurt and Madrid
3. Singapore Airlines: 28 (4.9%); Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and London Heathrow
4. China Southern: eight (1.4%); Guangzhou to Los Angeles, Melbourne, and Paris CDG
5. Korean Air: two (0.4%); Seoul Incheon to Guangzhou

As you can tell, the use of the A380 revolves around Europe. Image: OAG Mapper.

Singapore Airlines’ A380 returns to London

Singapore Airlines has three operational aircraft (9V-SKM/SKU/SKV). Since November 4th, they’ve been used on the 184-mile (296km) link to Kuala Lumpur (SQ106/105 and SQ126/125), taking about 40 minutes, again for crew training.

Much more significant, however, is that they’ve returned to Heathrow. After 18 months, the carrier’s first revenue-generating A380 flight took off from Singapore at 00:24 on November 19th. Operating as SQ322, it arrived 13 hours and 16 minutes later at 05:40 local time.

It’ll return to Asia as SQ317, which has a scheduled departure time of 10:55 and an arrival time of 07:50 the following morning. When writing, SQ317 is about to taxi to runway 27R, with an Emirates A380 (operating EK1) about to land on 27L, Radarbox.com indicates.

Flight SQ322 took off from Singapore to Heathrow early on November 19th. Image: Radarbox.com.

Emirates has 25 A380 routes this week

This week, Emirates has 25 routes across Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia, and the Middle East. With 14 destinations, almost two-thirds (64%) of flights are to Europe, a region that was always top but helped by Asia-Pacific currently having just one A380 destination (Bangkok). In all, nine destinations have at least two daily departures this week:

• Dubai to Heathrow: six-daily
• Cairo: twice-daily
• Paris CDG: twice-daily
• Moscow Domodedovo: twice-daily
• Frankfurt: twice-daily
• Jeddah: twice-daily
• New York JFK: twice-daily
• Manchester: twice-daily

Have you any A380 flights coming up? Share your plans in the comments.

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