The coronavirus epidemic causes low occupancy rates. This makes a large aircraft like the Airbus A380 unprofitable. It is not just Lufthansa that grounds the super jumbos.
Lufthansa started. The group announced last Friday that it was considering “temporarily decommissioning the entire Airbus A380 fleet in Frankfurt and Munich”. Most of the 14 super jumbos are now on the ground. Full grounding is imminent.
This is not a wonder. Because filling a mega aircraft with almost 500 seats is hardly possible in the current crisis. And if it is badly occupied, the Airbus A380 with its four engines quickly becomes a loss-maker.
Utilization too low for profitable flights
A study by the University of Cologne estimated in 2006 that a long-haul flight with an Airbus A380 is profitable from an occupancy of 70 percent. Kerosene is currently much cheaper than it was then, so the breakeven point is lower. But the mega aircraft are often only half or even a third full. It is not enough to fly in profit.
That doesn’t just apply to Lufthansa. Qantas is currently only using two of its twelve Airbus A380s. This is how the airline is responding to the reduced demand for air travel in Asia and the rest of the world. Korean Air also refrains from using its super jumbos because of the corona crisis. “All ten Airbus A380s will remain on the ground until April 25,” said a spokeswoman for aeroTELEGRAPH.
Air France continues to fly with A380
Asiana will hardly be using her A380 in the coming weeks either. For example, a Boeing 777 is used after Frankfurt. South Korea is one of the countries most affected by the epidemic.
Air France, on the other hand, doesn’t go that far yet. A spokeswoman explains that “at the moment, most of the routes are in a position to operate economically.” One could also shift some of the capacities to more resilient markets such as the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean or Africa. However, some aircraft would be serviced early. British Airways does not want to comment on a possible temporary grounding of the Airbus A380.
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