China Southern to exit A380s by this year: Report

China’s sole Airbus A380 operator is reportedly retiring its fleet of superjumbos by the end of the year, becoming the latest carrier in the Asia-Pacific region to do so since the pandemic first struck. An article that first appeared on Chinese media site Sohu — citing internal meeting documents — says China Southern has signed “relevant contracts” to exit its fleet of five A380s, after chalking up more than a decade of losses with the type. Cirium fleets data indicates two A380s (B-6136 and B-6137) are in storage at the airline’s Guangzhou hub. The report, which FlightGlobal has not been able to independently verify, comes nearly a year since the airline said it was reviewing the future of the superjumbos amid uncertainty about international travel recovery. In mid-April 2021, China Southern senior vice-president of international and corporate relations Guoxiang Wu said the aircraft was “maybe…too large and the operation cost [is] very high”. It was the clearest indication yet from the carrier, which had always been coy about the status of its small A380 fleet. The Sohu report goes deeper into apparent challenges faced by the carrier in operating the A380, including its inability to secure operating slots for the type at Beijing. In recent months — and amid a pandemic-driven travel decline — the A380’s excess capacity had also become an issue for the carrier, the article states. <br/>