The great A380 comeback continues, and this time it’s being driven not by manufacturers, but by the airlines the

The great A380 comeback continues, and this time it’s being driven not by manufacturers, but by the airlines themselves. Whether it’s retrofits, route expansions or capacity crunches, the demand is real – and the superjumbo is back in the spotlight.

The average age of a European is 45, so there's a good chance most readers of this article were born in the 1960s, 70s or 80s. In other words, Concorde was an ever-present throughout your youth: a miracle of the skies that defied belief and the sound barrier itself. You still have to pinch yourself to accept it’s been nearly 22 years since its last flight.

The lifespan of the Airbus A380, unlike its wingspan, feels quite brief in comparison. Like Concorde, it was ‘retired’, but with 251 in circulation (compared to just 20 Concordes), it wasn’t going to disappear overnight. Rather the industry expected the fleet to be gradually decommissioned, slowly cannibalising each other for spare parts, and then the pandemic arrived, very much speeding up the rate at which the giant aircraft were being put into mothballs.

Or did it? Because five years later, over 80 percent remain in circulation – in fact barely a month goes by without the number increasing. Just recently, Qantas announced plans to return two more to the skies. Not only is the A380 very much resurgent, but on 27 April 2025 it celebrated the 20th anniversary of its maiden flight, leaving it just 14 years off matching Concorde’s lifespan.

The anniversary once again cast a spotlight on the A380’s extraordinary origins story and what the industry has learned from its service, its retirement and its ongoing comeback.

How the pandemic grounded the giant

As the world’s only full-length double-decker commercial aircraft, the A380 can potentially carry up to 853 people at a time when configured to seat only economy class passengers. Its four engines can generate 31,750 kilos of thrust, the same horsepower as 2,500 cars, its cargo can carry over 3,000 suitcases, and its maximum takeoff weight is 575 tonnes – roughly eight times heavier than Airbus’s smallest narrow-body aircraft, the A319.

Such is its size, the paint on its body weighs 635 kilos – the equivalent of nine adult passengers. In short, it is an absolute giant – a triumph over the laws of physics. Early on in its planning stage, Airbus was warned about the risk that the A380 might struggle to fulfil its capacity. The OEM’s decision to cease building them in 2021 appeared to vindicate the initial doubts. But by some strange twist of fate, the very thing that appeared to be A380’s death knell has turned out to be its saviour. Initially, the pandemic was the worst possible news for the behemoth. As passenger numbers sank to unprecedented levels, the possibility of filling an aircraft with a capacity of 525 looked unlikely.

So, every time the aircraft flew well short of their capacity, the high operating costs incurred by fuel and the need for a large cabin crew hit the airlines hard. It made far more sense to operate smaller aircraft instead, and many A380s were grounded and put into storage. Servicing them was also difficult given that the A380 is made up of 2.5 million numbered parts sourced from 1,500 partners across 30 countries.

Rising like a phoenix from the ashes

But fast-forward three years to the end of 2023, and airlines’ downsized fleets could no longer accommodate the demand for capacity, as passenger numbers returned to the same levels seen in 2019. Big aircraft like the A380 give airlines that missing capacity, and many have been bringing it back into service and investing in retrofits – mostly of their luxury class interiors.

Emirates, the biggest A380s owner by far with 123 of the aircraft, in March 2025 confirmed that it will invest $5 billion in retrofitting its A380s as well as its entire fleet.

In January, its long-serving chief executive, Tim Clark, publicly called upon Airbus to resume production of the A380 – only this time using more aerodynamic materials to build them and equipping them with fuel-efficient UltraFan engines. Clark, who described the A380 as “compelling” and “probably the most profitable asset we've got”, revealed he has passed on specific plans to the OEM. He told Business Insider:

"I believe there is a case. The risk-averse nature of my peer group, CEOs, and boards is probably a major inhibitor to that. But if we were to put $20 billion on the table for Airbus, they'd probably build it for us."

Clark estimates that the requested measures could make a revamped A380 up to 25 percent more fuel-efficient.

Suddenly, the A380 wouldn’t just be an answer to capacity problems but a future solution for reducing airline operating costs and achieving greater profitability – as well as a shining light for how airlines can simultaneously fly large aircraft and cut their emissions per passenger rates.

Airbus did not comment on Clark’s comments, but a report in Hamburger Abendblatt in 2024, citing Christian Scherer, the head of Airbus' civil aircraft division, did suggest that production on the A380 could resume – but that the chances were very, very low:

"Nothing is ever ruled out in this industry: the door is closed, but it is not locked."

Behold the darling of the hub-and-spoke model

It’s interesting to note that some of the rationale used by Airbus in the early 2000s to justify its initial $17 billion project to develop the A380 was echoed by Clark.

Airbus predicted overburdened airports would force the industry to alleviate traffic congestion with hub-and-spoke models, and Clark agrees that the high-capacity A380 is both a good fit for the model and a solution to increasing demand on popular routes, telling Business Insider it is a "no-brainer" for the industry to fly the A380.

With 12 in its fleet, British Airways has more A380s than any other European carrier, and this year the aircraft is playing a vital role in its scheduling as BA responds to the rapid increase in demand for capacity.

An article in March 2025 describes the A380 as BA’s “trick up its sleeve” to fulfil higher-demand corridors from its Heathrow hub to major destinations such as San Francisco International – up to 60 flights in each direction per month from April 2025.

SFO is one of five long-haul US destinations for which BA has managed to fine-tune its services for using the A380. In total in April, BA will operate the A380 on 480 flights to seven destinations – five of which are in the US – offering 225,120 seats, which equates to just over 1.8 billion ASKs.

Meanwhile, Qantas confirmed in February that it will return two more of its A380s by the end of 2025, taking its total number in service to 10. It’s quite a turnaround for the airline, as its entire fleet of A380s was grounded between the outbreak of the pandemic and November 2021.

SATAIR TAKEAWAY

As Emirates chief executive Tim Clark observes, the A380 has always been "compelling". So it's exciting to see how its story has continued against the odds. And now, seemingly, it has a new mission to fulfil: helping commercial aviation to find some of the extra capacity it will need to fulfil an expected doubling in passenger numbers over the next two decades. This will fit in quite nicely with Clark's long-held belief that his airline will be flying A380s into the 2040s. Not only will this be compelling to see, but it will see the A380 eclipse the lifespan of Concorde

A380s Part III: You heard retirements, we heard resurgence