Emirates has not flown mostly all the A380s since the COVID-19 lockdown ended. At this time also, majority of Emirates’ A380s are in storage at different places.
Emirates has heavily relied on Airbus A380s for some key routes and because of the pandemic situation, the airline is flying the aircraft on limited routes because of the low-capacity issues.
Emirates’ president Tim Clark reassured viewers of Bloomberg News that most of the A380s will be coming back.
“My view, and it’s always an optimistic view, is that by the end of next year calendar or the first quarter of 2022, we’ll have all our A380s flying.”, he said.
Tim Clark believes the superjumbo remains a core part of the Emirates product. “The A380 remains the flagship of Emirates. It is the one that defines our product, it is the one that is recognised by the consumers and people are still trying to get on it from all parts of our networks. It will always be there for us until such time as it finally has to retire.”, he added.
Clark believes that $2 billion bailout from UAE government is enough to see it through. “Do we need to have more input from the government? Possibly, but not that much and we honestly believe that in the second quarter of next year we’ll be cash positive again and growing our business, especially with this vaccine.”, he said.
A380 has always been and will always be a special part of Emirates fleet and we all would love to see more and more of them back in the sky. Have you flown on an Emirates A380 before? If yes, what was your experience? Let me know in the comments section below.