Japan’s ANA reactivates A380s

ANA – All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda) has returned its A380-800s to commercial service after being parked for nearly 18 months, ch-aviation research has revealed.

JA381A (msn 262) was put into storage on March 24, 2020, as the closure of US borders forced ANA to suspend the type’s only route, from Tokyo Narita to Honolulu. The aircraft was reactivated on test flights around Tokyo every few months in 2020 and 2021 and operated a number of ferry flights for maintenance between various Japanese airports and Xiamen over the course of spring and summer 2021. Finally, on August 9-10, the airline once more deployed the quadjet on scheduled services to Honolulu. On August 13-14, the same route was operated by sistership JA382A (msn 263). However, ANA does not currently plan to continue operating the route and has not scheduled any further rotations.

The Japanese carrier ordered three A380-800s and planned to operate them exclusively to Honolulu, capitalising on booming pre-COVID demand in Japan for Hawaiian holidays. It took the first two aircraft in March and May 2019 as the final new customer of the type delivered directly by Airbus. The last of the three aircraft, JA383A (msn 266), was delivered to the airline in October 2020 but remains parked at Toulouse Blagnac airport awaiting the ferry flight to Japan, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows.

Although 13 airlines retain the A380 in their fleets, only two at present – Emirates and China Southern Airlines – deploy the type on scheduled flights. Among the remaining eleven, some, including Etihad Airways, Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways International, Air France, and Qatar Airways, have either confirmed or at least hinted that they will not reactivate the type once the COVID-19 pandemic abates.