British Airways is seemingly set to become one of the few operators that still believes in the viability of the Airbus A380. The airline has scheduled daily flights utilizing the double-decker on routes to North America and South Africa.
Starting in the Winter 2021 season, the British airline will operate at least four routes using the Airbus A380. Daily flights to Johannesburg, South Africa, Los Angeles and Miami were scheduled effective October 25, 2020, while flights from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to San Francisco would start on February 1, 2021, reported Routesonline.
The schedule is active till March 2021, when the summer season kicks in.
Out of the 12 Airbus A380s that are registered to British Airways, 11 are stored in Chateauroux Centre Marcel Dassault Airport (CHR) in France, flightradar24.com data shows. One A380 (registered G-XLEI) was ferried to Manila, Philippines on August 18 to undergo heavy maintenance, switching its places with G-XLEH. The former returned from the Asian country to London on August 22, 2020.
In July 2020, British Airways announced that it would permanently retire its Boeing 747 fleet, another quad-engine aircraft, joining many airlines around the world who did the same. The Airbus A380 was also at the forefront of early permanent retirements and long-term storages, as such operators as Air France, Lufthansa (LHAB) (LHA), Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY), Qantas, Qatar Airways shrunk their A380 fleets for good or phased them out for the time being.
A British Airways representative could not confirm whether the A380s would definitely operate any of the aforementioned flights.
