Etihad Airways gets its first Airbus A380 out of storage

Etihad Airways has welcomed the first of four Airbus A380 aircraft the airline plans to restore for the upcoming summer season.

The aircraft, registered as A6-APG, was spotted leaving Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport (LDE) in France, which is around 150 kilometers (93.2 miles) south of Toulouse, France, where Airbus is based, on March 9, 2023. The Airbus A380 departed for Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Etihad Airways is based, arriving at 2:51 AM local time (UTC +4) on March 10, 2023.

The Super Jumbo spent a little over a month at LDE, after arriving from its previous storage location, at Spain’s Teruel Airport (TEV), on January 30, 2023. The A380 was stored there since April 2021, after arriving from AUH. The aircraft was stored at the Emirati airport between March 2020 and April 2021, per planespotters.net data.

Meanwhile, according to ch-aviation.com data, as of December 31, 2023, the Airbus A380, had 20,361 Flight Hours (FH) and 2,206 Flight Cycles (FC), with an average stage length of nine hours and 14 minutes. The Super Jumbo also bears a special Choose South Korea livery.

In total, Etihad Airways will bring back four Airbus A380s for the upcoming peak summer season. All four will fly between AUH and London Heathrow Airport (LHR). The quartet is equipped with the Residence, the airline’s most luxurious cabin offering, essentially a private suite. As well as the Residence apartments, the aircraft have nine first, 70 business, and 325 economy class seats, per ch-aviation.com.

No other Etihad Airways Airbus A380s have been active for the past 30 days, flightradar24.com records show.