Lufthansa brings back first A380

Following up on our article of 28 June 2022, we can now report that Lufthansa has taken a first Airbus A380 out of storage. The aircraft, D-AIMK (146), was ferried from Teruel in Spain to Frankfurt on 2 December 2022, as LH9921.

Here it will receive initial maintenance after storage, before being ferried to Manila for heavy maintenance. Its planned to have the aircraft back in service at the start of the 2023 summer season in March.

The ferry flight was conducted with the gear down as Lufthansa could not test if the gear would retract as normal at Teruel.

Lufthansa is reactivating the type as it is facing a big increase in post-COVID customer demand and its new Boeing B777-9s are delayed. The airline has eight remaining A380s in the fleet and it is expected that up to six will be reactivated. The plan is to operate the aircraft mainly out of Munich.

Photo by Lufthansa.