Over 1,000 Weekly Flights In March: The Return Of The Airbus A380

Eight airlines will use the A380 at the start of summer 2022, culminating in over 1,000 weekly flights. Some 57 routes will see the double-decker quadjet, including Emirates to Mumbai, the return of Qantas to Los Angeles, and All Nippon from Tokyo to Honolulu. As always, changes may happen.

Qantas will operate six-weekly from Sydney to Los Angeles using the A380. It’ll mainly leave Sydney at 10:15 and arrive in California at 06:00 local time. Photo: Getty Images.

What’s the latest?

The use of the A380 is slowly returning. In the week starting March 27th, the first week of the aviation summer season, 1,005 flights are due to operate, analyzing OAG data shows. Flights are up by a quarter (27%) versus the same week the previous month, although not all may end up operating, let alone perform well. However, they remain at just 44% of what existed at the start of summer 2019.

• Emirates: approximately 74.2% of all A380 flights at the start of summer 2022
• British Airways: 8.4%
• Singapore Airlines: 7.9%
• Asiana: 2.8%
• Qatar Airways: 2.8%
• All Nippon: 2.0%
• Qantas: 1.2%
• China Southern: 0.8%

Asiana has a bookable once-daily A380 service from Seoul Incheon to Frankfurt and Los Angeles. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

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14 routes have double daily+ A380 flights

The A380 will operate 57 routes in the examined week, and 14 will have two or more daily flights as shown in the map below. With seven-daily, Heathrow will (as always) have the most, six by Emirates (leaving Dubai at 02:30, 07:45, 09:40, 11:25, 14:15, 15:45) and one with BA (mainly at 01:15). When Gatwick is added, London will have nine-daily A380 services. Others with twice-daily-plus include Moscow, Düsseldorf, and Manchester.

Although served less often, there are few one-stops. Those that exist – Singapore Airlines’ Singapore-Frankfurt-JFK, Emirates’ Dubai-Milan Malpensa-JFK, and Emirates’ Dubai-Bangkok-Hong Kong – are each counted as two routes. Thanks to fifth freedom traffic rights, the through point to the destination is bookable.

These routes have at least two daily A380 flights in the first week of summer 2022. Image: GCMap.

Bangkok to Hong Kong: the shortest route

Across all 57 routes, the shortest route is the tag-on from Bangkok to Hong Kong, some 1,049 miles (1,688km). The termination service from Dubai to Jeddah has an almost equal distance (1,057 miles, 1,701km). Both are nowhere near as short as previous routes.

At less than three hours in both directions, Dubai to Jeddah wins the shortest race if block time is considered. Photo: Emirates.

Other A380 routes were to operate

Other routes were expected to operate in this March week. BA had scheduled the A380 to Singapore from March 27th, but it has been removed. China Southern was hoping to use it to Heathrow and Sydney, but London has been pulled, and Sydney will now see the A350. Emirates had expected Dubai to Guangzhou and Shanghai Pudong, but none are bookable. It’s a reminder of the fluidity of the situation.

Emirates used the A380 to Mumbai between July 2014 and March 2020. Now it’s set to return from April 1st. Photo: via Emirates.

Emirates will again use the A380 to Mumbai

Emirates has scheduled the double-decker to Mumbai, with all flights bookable and reflected on its website. The first flight is on April 1st (no joke) with a once-daily service by the type. It’ll operate EK500, leaving Dubai at 21:55 and arriving at 02:30 local time the next day. Returning, EK501 will depart at 04:30 and arrive home at 06:00.

What do you make of these plans? Do you think they’re realistic and doable or overly optimistic? Let us know in the comments.

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