Fifteen years after the first A380 took flight, there’s now only 1 in the air

On April 27, 2005, the world’s greatest commercial aircraft took to the sky.

Soaring above Toulouse on its first-ever test flight, Airbus’ A380 put the wings in motion for a super-sized era of flights - one filled up with double-decker cabins, fully enclosed apartments and on-board shower spas.

Today, on the 15th anniversary of its maiden flight, only 1 A380 happens to be in the sky. The coronavirus pandemic has forced a lot of the world’s superjumbos to the bottom until further notice.

According to global flight tracking service Flightradar24, the only A380 currently in the sky is China Southern’s flight CZ328. The superjumbo departed LA around midnight on Monday, April 27 on a 13-hour flight towards Guangzhou. It is scheduled to land in China just before 6am on Tuesday, April 28.

Several airlines own A380 aircraft and, pre-pandemic, among the jets became popular or landed somewhere on the planet every two minutes.

Emirates is the biggest fan of the aircraft, as the Dubai airline makes up about nearly half of all A380s sold. Sixteen other airlines also own A380s including Etihad, British Airways, All Nippon, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Asiana. Before the coronavirus travel restrictions were implemented, this combined fleet made 330 flights each day, with services to a lot more than 70 destinations.

Super-sized flying

More than 400 airports all over the world are appropriate for the aircraft, which may be the largest passenger jet ever sold with a seating capacity of up to 853 and a maximum take-off weight of 575 tonnes.

The scale of the A380 is what allowed the world’s airlines to get creative when it found flying. Emirates installed shower spas and an upper deck lounge on its jets while Etihad introduced The Residence, the only three-bedroom apartment in the sky. Singapore Airlines created high grade suites with everything you’d expect from an extravagance accommodation, and Korean Airways super-sized its A380 business seats and gave each one a person sized movie theatre.

But bigger isn’t always better, especially in unprecedented situations. Several airlines all over the world have grounded passenger flights and turned their focus instead to cargo and repatriation services.

The A380 has been used for many of these special services, but as demand for repatriation drops, it really is becoming less economical for airlines to continue operating such large jets. Smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft are being prioritised to service repatriation efforts.

As the greatest commercial jet in the sky, the A380 may have record-breaking seating capacity, wingspan and height, but it cannot match newer, better aircraft on fuel consumption.

The start of the end

This past year, Airbus announced it could end production of the A380 in 2021 and focus instead on creating jets that are more economical.

However the storied jumbo isn't consigned to history at this time. As soon as travel restrictions are lifted and airlines will get their fleets back the air, the A380 will continue steadily to fly. Emirates previously said it'll be in operation until at least 2038.

On the 15th anniversary of the A380’s maiden flight, its parent company is fighting for survival. Reports released earlier today from Reuters declare that Guillaume Faury, leader of Airbus, has written to employees of the business saying it really is "bleeding cash at an unprecedented speed”.

Airbus has lost one third of its business due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.