[AMcWhirter]

Many of you will have read Mark’s piece today regarding Lufthansa’s A380 schedules for 2024.

Now comes further news that Lufthansa will retrofit its A380s with its latest business class seating.

Currently A380 business class is disposed 2-2-2 so we can expect Lufthansa to move towards a 1-2-1 layout.

No details of when this work will take place have been revealed.

But the news, confirmed by the CEO, emerged at a media event in Frankfurt yesterday.

CEO Carsten Spohr is quoted by Aero.de [DE] saying that because of the retrofit “The A380 will be flying longer than we thought a year ago. Feedback from customers has been positive … demand continues unabated.”

Lufthansa’s A380s to serve five routes for summer 2024

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BackOfThePlane

[BackOfThePlane]

Interesting to note that both BA and LH are now planning to re-fit the A380 with updated business class cabins. If you had asked either about the chances of this 2 or 3 years ago they would both have laughed.

Taking into account the huge cost involved, this makes it clear that both airlines expect to be operating the A380 for several more years and, by default, probably don’t expect deliveries of the 777-9 anytime soon.

[cwoodward]

I find Lufthansa’s fleet policy interesting particularly that they run there aircraft for many years more than do most other large airlines. Unlike some however they keep their huge fleet in tip top condition – including the cabins.
Cases in point are the A340 fleet of 26 aircraft that are still used on both long and short haul with an average age of 21 years. ( some will be retired as more A330s arrive) and the 30 X A319s doing sterling service and also with an average age of 21 years.

It would not surprise me at all if the ran the A380 for another 10 years yet as long as there are profitable.

[AMcWhirter]

As Carsten Spohr told media in Frankfurt “The manufacturing problems [at Boeing and Airbus] are deep.”

Lufthansa is not expecting a quick resolution to delivery delays of the A350s, 787s and next generation 777s it has ordered.

Qatar Airways CEO is not a fan of the A380 although he admits the super jumbo is a favourite with passengers.

Speaking to media in Seattle a day or so ago CEO Al Baker said the A380 would remain in the fleet for a couple of years until the next generation 777 is delivered.

But as Carsten Spohr indicates above the delivery schedule might be longer than expected.

Doubtless this was the reason why Etihad decided to reactivate a number of its A380s.

Last year in May 2022 Tom Otley published a piece “How sustainable is Etihad.”

Back then Etihad was talking about SAF fuel and downsizing its fleet to operate more economical aircraft.

Then in October 2022 Etihad CEO Tony Douglas announced he was stepping down.

Not long after, in a change of tack, Etihad decided to reactivate its A380s.

These aircraft are relatively new (the one which started to operate into LHR dates from 2016) and they have up-to-date interiors.

However to reactive the super jumbo is a costly business. Not only in terms of checking over the A380s but in terms of having to retrain onboard staff, pilots and so on.

The cost of a C-Check (which Al Baker said was x3 the cost of a similar check for a B787 or A350-1000) and the work involved is so expensive and time consuming.

Flightradar24 detailed the complexity of a C-check via YouTube.

Yes I know it’s really of interest to aviation fans but I was so impressed that I thought I would provide readers with the link.

The main part starts at 4 mins 4 secs.

[Author]

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