Lufthansa leans on A380s to maintain expansion and could keep jumbos flying into 2030s

Lufthansa expects to continue operating its recommissioned Airbus A380s through the late 2020s or early 2030s due to factors including delayed deliveries of new Boeing 777-9s. That is according to the airline’s CE Carsten Spohr, who on 12 September says bringing the Airbus jumbos back online will allow Lufthansa to expand internationally even as supply chain and quality issues depress Airbus and Boeing’s new-aircraft delivery rates. “Late 20s, early 30s,” Spohr says when asked how long Lufthansa expects to continue operating its Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered A380s. “It depends on demand, and when Airbus and Boeing are able to deliver other airplanes.” During the Covid-19 pandemic, Lufthansa grounded its then 14-strong A380 fleet. It eventually sold six of the jets. The airline then decided on an A380 reprieve. In June, Lufthansa pressed one of the jets back into service as part of a plan to recommission six. But in recent weeks, Lufthansa’s top brass decided to expand the active fleet to include all eight of its A380s. It expects to have the eight in service in 2024. “The eight we own will all be back… including with a new business [class] product,” says Spohr. Lufthansa now operates three of the jumbos on routes including Munich to New York and to Boston, and by 2025 plans to deploy them to additional destinations like Delhi and Washington-Dulles airport. Spohr describes the double-deckers as a valuable tool that will allow Lufthansa to backfill some capacity that it expected to have – but does not – because Airbus and Boeing are not making good on delivery promises.<br/>