British Airways’ Airbus A380 Returns To The Skies

This morning, British Airways returned the Airbus A380 to the skies. With a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Frankfurt’s Rhein-Main Airport, the airline launched its crew-training program with the jet ahead of its return to long-haul services, planned for December.

The giant of the skies’ capacity is unneeded with low passenger demand. Photo: British Airways

November appears to be a mega month for the Airbus A380’s return. Last week, Singapore Airlines resumed short-haul flights with the giant of the skies, and today, the first Qantas A380 will return to Sydney. Now, British Airways is getting in on the action with the return of its own double-decker giant.

The A380 is back

This morning British Airways made it official. Ahead of its long-haul return, the British flag carrier brought the giant of the skies back. The mighty Airbus A380 hasn’t flown for the airline for over a year, meaning that the airline’s crew has lost familiarity with the jet.

The British Airways A380 flies past the European Central Bank on its final approach to Frankfurt Airport. Photo: Tom Boon – Simple Flying

To counteract this, British Airways is treating the A380’s return to service like the entry to service of a new jet. This means that the airline is operateing a series of short-haul flights with the giant to reacquaint crew with the jet.

The crew training flights will go to Frankfurt and Madrid. Photo: Cirium

British Airways will operate a daily A380 rotation to Frankfurt in Germany and Madrid in Spain for much of the next month. The aim is that crew can get familiar with the jet on a short flight. If something goes wrong during training, it would be far worse on a long-haul hop to Los Angeles, as opposed to a short intra-European hop.

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Gearing up for the long-haul return

For the time being, British Airways will be flying the Airbus A380 on short-haul flights. However, in December, things will really start to ramp up. Next month, the airline will place the giant of the skies on its highest-demand routes. The double-decker jet will fly from London Heathrow to Dubai in the east and Miami and Los Angeles in the west.

Eventually, Johannesburg will also join the network. According to the British Airways booking engine, the airline will start flying the behemoth south to South Africa from January 10th, alongside another daily Boeing 777 service.

Singapore Airlines also brought the Airbus A380 back this month. Photo: Getty Images

November: The month of the A380?

British Airways is one of two airlines bringing the Airbus A380 back in November. Last week Singapore Airlines also brought the giant jet back, again for short-haul flights initially. Next month, Qatar Airways will also bring the Airbus A380 back. However, the airline recently revealed that it was reluctant to bring the jet back. Instead, it was forced to by the ongoing grounding of some of its A350 aircraft.

What do you make of British Airways’ Airbus A380 return? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!

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