The spread of coronavirus and its effect on travel have taken Lufthansa’s fleet of fourteen A380s off the runway at least until May, and possibly longer.
The superjumbo planes, now parked at Frankfurt and Munich airports, have been used only on high-density routes such as between its German bases and San Francisco, Miami and Los Angeles. With coronavirus reducing demand for air travel, the 500-seat four-engine fuel-guzzlers have been traveling with only 35% of the seats filled. Lufthansa is switching those flights to smaller planes.
The stand-down for the planes could last longer; Lufthansa already had plans to retire six of the A380 fleet in the next year or two, and to have retired all four-engine planes by 2025, replacing them with 787s and A350s.
