British Airways is making the final preparations to send its Airbus A380 aircraft back into long-haul flying. From Friday, the aircraft will once again be used for the routes it was designed for, with its re-inaugural long-haul service heading from London to Dubai before other routes are slowly introduced.
A year ago, it looked pretty hit and miss whether any of the British Airways Airbus A380 fleets would return to the skies, as the airline sent aircraft to long-term storage in warm, arid climates like Teruel in Spain and Doha in Qatar. Despite the uncertainty, the type weathered the pandemic and is set to make its grand return later this week.
Seeking sun and sand
British Airways’ Airbus A380 is set to operate its first post-COVID long-haul flight on Sunday. The airline is set to fly the giant of the skies to the world’s busiest airport for Airbus A380s, Dubai International (DXB).
From Friday and for the remainder of December, British Airways will be flying the Airbus A380 to Dubai once a day. Following this, BA will roll out two more destinations before the end of the year. Daily flights to Miami (MIA) will commence on Sunday, December 5th, while Los Angeles International (LAX) will follow on Thursday, December 9th, again with a daily service.
Given the current schedule, British Airways will need at least four A380s to operate the initial plan, as a rotation on the Los Angeles route is scheduled to take 23 hours and 55 minutes, and it isn’t possible to turn an A380 around in five minutes.
Further destinations are to come
While British Airways is starting with three long-haul A380 destinations, more are certainly on the cards. According to schedules published so far per data from Cirium, British Airways intends to fly the Airbus A380 to another four destinations,
- DFW – Dallas Fort Worth – Starting March 27th
- JNB – Johannesburg – Starting February 1st (postponed from January)
- SFO – San Francisco – Starting March 27th
- SIN – Singapore – Starting March 27th
Three routes are scheduled to resume on March 27th because this is when the 2022 IATA summer schedule kicks in. This means it is a natural point for airline schedules to change significantly.
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As mentioned, the A380’s Johannesburg debut was delayed. The aircraft was due to start flying to South Africa’s largest city in mid-January. However, this has been preliminarily postponed until February 1st due to the country’s inclusion on the United Kingdom red list over Omicron variant fears.
The return to long-haul also means that the A380 will stop flying to Frankfurt and Madrid. These two short-haul routes had been operated over the past month to enable the crew to get reacquainted with the giant of the skies. After all, many hadn’t flown on it in over a year.
Are you excited to see the Airbus A380 returning to long-haul service? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!
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