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Malaysia Airlines to retire Airbus A380 fleet in coming months
Malaysia Airlines will retire the A380 superjumbo.
Malaysia Airlines has indicated that it plans to retire its Airbus A380 fleet “in the coming months”.
For a number of years, the airline has struggled to find appropriate routes for the aircraft, even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Since the arrival of the A350 aircraft into the Malaysia Airlines fleet, the superjumbo has been reassigned to doing adhoc high demand flights to Seoul and Tokyo, as well as pilgrimage flights to Madinah and Jeddah.
“We’re currently exploring ways of disposing the aircraft. We’re cognisant of the challenges of how to sell the aircraft [which is one possibility] but we’re exploring ways,” MAG’s group chief executive officer Izham Ismail said.
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The Malaysian flag carrier’s six A380s are an average nine years old, having been delivered in 2012 and 2013.
The carrier has joined the ranks of airlines retiring the A380 during the pandemic, which include Air France, Lufthansa, Etihad Airways, and Thai Airways International.
“There is no future for the A380. It was the wrong airplane at the wrong time. It is something that passengers love, many liked to travel on the A380. It’s very quite and it’s very spacious, but at the end of the day, for the operator, it’s really painful to keep them in the skies,” CEO of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker said.
“The operating costs are punishing and so are the maintenance costs, an A380 at C check is three times the cost of that of a B777 or an A350-1000.”
Emirates are still expecting five new A380s from Airbus.
