A380 resumes service but future still cloudy for super-jumbo

Passengers loved the world’s biggest airliner, the two-storey Airbus A380, and couldn’t wait to fly on it.

But it turned into something of an airborne white elephant, and Airbus will stop making it in 2021.

Then Covid-19 trashed commercial aviation this year and the entire Emirates fleet of 115 A380s was grounded as passenger numbers plummeted.

Now, the world’s biggest international airline has resumed flying the iconic airplane.

Emirates, which carries more international passengers than any other airline, restarted Airbus A380 service in July with a flight from its Emirates base in Dubai to London Heathrow and Paris Charles De Gaulle.

Emirates president Tim Clark is sounding optimistic about getting all 115 back into the skies.

Unfortunately, the Emirates A380 onboard experience, which has been the giant airplane’s calling card since it entered commercial service in 2007, has also been seriously affected by coronavirus. The showers and the bar are closed for now, and the luxury service and lavish meals have turned into something less memorable.

Nevertheless, passengers will be pleased to have the chance to fly on the huge but graceful jet, when international borders reopen.

Yet, the future of the Airbus super-jumbo is still up in the air.

Regardless of what Emirates has done with it this summer, it remains too large an aircraft for most routes.

Air France has already decided to axe all of its A380s and Lufthansa of Germany has said it will not resume flying it before 2022 if ever.

And right now, although passengers would love to get on board and fly somewhere exotic, they simply can’t.