Malaysia Airlines issues RFP for sale of six A380-800s

Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur Int’l) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) soliciting bids for the sale of six A380-800s with a deadline for offers to be sent by August 13, 2021.

The carrier said it would only release the detailed documentation to pre-approved bidders who sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) by August 12. It tentatively plans to conclude the sale by November, although it also retained the right to not choose any of the bids.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the six Airbus double-deckers are 9.2 years old on average and range from 8.7 to 9.8 years of age individually. As of February 28, 2021, they have accumulated from 23,819 to 28,386 flight hours each, and from 2,277 to 2,618 flight cycles each. The aircraft are equipped with 412 seats in economy class (except for a single unit, 9M-MNA (msn 78), with 420), 66 in business class, and eight in first class.

The Malaysian carrier has long struggled with finding a good use for its A380s. In 2017, it resolved to transfer the six aircraft to a new unit, Amal by Malaysia Airlines, dedicated to Hajj and Umrah flights from Malaysia to Madinah and Jeddah. It initially planned to reconfigure the aircraft into high-density single-class layouts. However, it later scrapped these plans and for a while continued to operate the A380-800s on the most in-demand scheduled routes to Seoul Incheon and Tokyo Narita, even as it started taking deliveries of the replacement type, the A350-900s. Eventually, however, the aircraft were moved to serve exclusively the Saudi Arabian routes.

All of them were grounded in February and March 2020, when the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic halted all pilgrimages to the Muslim holy sites. Since then, the aircraft have only been reactivated for sporadic test flights around Kuala Lumpur. In May 2021, Malaysia Airlines confirmed that it would not seek to return the A380s to service and would instead try to sell them.