Malaysia Airlines confirms A380 retirement by the end of 2022

Malaysia Airlines has made no secret of its desire to be rid of the Airbus A380. Why are all Malaysia Airlines A380s have been undertaking short flights once every three months?

Many airlines have reneged on their initial instincts to remove the type from service as travel demand comes surging back.

Speaking to Simple Flying, Capt. Izham Ismail, Group Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Aviation Group, reiterated that there is no plan to bring back the A380. Indeed, by the end of this year, it is hoped all six will leave the fleet. He commented,

“At the moment, we have no plans to restore service for the A380s and are still targeting to exit the A380 fleet by the end of 2022.”

It seems that Malaysia Airlines will not be joining the likes of Lufthansa and Qatar Airways in undoing its decision to remove the A380 from its fleet.

With such a firm decision to remove the type from its fleet in a matter of months, one would expect the A380s in MAB livery to be mothballed somewhere, resting their wings in the sun. But that’s not the case.

According to data from FlightRadar24.com, all six have been undertaking regular flights to nowhere, approximately once every three months, from their parking spots at Kuala Lumpur Airport. 9M-MNA last flew commercially in February 2020, arriving in KLIA from Jeddah. It has since flown at least nine times, with the last flight on June 3rd this year.

Malaysia Airlines doesn’t want just to scrap its A380 fleet. After all, these planes are not leased – they are owned by the airline and are estimated to be worth some $240 million, according to ch-aviation.com. The airline has been attempting to sell the A380s for some time now (more than a year in fact), but has so far been unsuccessful in trying to find a buyer for six second hand superjumbos.

These regular, short flights keep the airplanes current. It prevents the need for costly return-to-service maintenance and ensures any buyer for the jets can take off right away. It won’t be the only maintenance MAB is undertaking – the airline will likely be busily running the engines every week, running major systems and doing all the pre-check flights that would normally be done if a plane was in regular use.

Looking back, it seems Airbus had bitten off a little more than it could chew with the A380. The first airplane entered service in October 2007, with Singapore Airlines, and it would be the only one to do so that year. With production taking longer than expected, Airbus only managed to deliver 12 more A380s in 2008, and 10 in 2009. Malaysia Airlines ended up waiting until July 2012 to receive its first superjumbo.

By the early 2010s, airlines had shifted to preferring frequency over capacity. New airplanes like the 787 were entering service, and the business case for the A380 was getting weaker by the day. This reflects in the Airbus orderbook for the type, which saw sluggish orders from the launch of the type, compounded by huge cancellations just 12 years after the first airplane entered service. simpleflying.com