The airline is decommissioning eleven of its twelve super jumbos. British Airways Airbus A380s are waiting for better times at the small Châteauroux airport.
There are no scheduled flights to the Aéroport de Châteauroux-Center. Only charter planes and freighters occasionally take off and land at the airport in central France. Nevertheless, many pilots know him well. Many European airlines – including Lufthansa and Swiss – practice touch-and-go here, i.e. putting on and starting again immediately.
But now the Airbus A380 touches down almost every day on the 3,500-meter-long concrete runway without taking off again. British Airways has decided to temporarily shut down eleven of its twelve superjumbos because of the Corona crisis. And they are expected to be parked in Châteauroux for six months. There is plenty of space there and also a 38 meter high hangar with an area of 8540 square meters.
Cradle of the French aircraft industry
The first three British Airways A380s (registration number: G-XLEC, G-XLEF and G-XLEI) arrived at the airport 210 kilometers south-west of Paris on Monday (April 6). The next day, two more biplanes were transferred (G-XLEJ and G-XLEL). Four more machines are due to arrive in Châteauroux next week, the radio station France Bleu reports, the rest a week later.
Châteauroux Airport is the cradle of the French aircraft industry. It was here that Marcel Dassault began building aviators in 1935.
In the picture gallery above you can see pictures of the Airbus A380 from British Airways in Châteauroux.
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