Before the jet returns to duty, it will undergo extensive maintenance for more than a month.
In preparation for a 13-hour journey to the Philippines, Lufthansa has launched the first revived Airbus A380 from Frankfurt. The plane is currently en route to Manila where it will receive repairs before returning to service in the summer.
D-AIMK is preparing for a return
The special flight LH9922, operated by Lufthansa and with the registration D-AIMK, departed Frankfurt Airport (FRA) at 06:44 on Sunday, January 29th. It will take 13 hours to get from Frankfurt to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL).
One of the 14 Airbus A380s in Lufthansa’s fleet, D-AIMK, was stored at Teruel Airport (TEV) during the early COVID pandemic and remained there for almost 2.5 years before flying to Frankfurt on December 2, 2022. On that occasion, the plane had to fly at a lower speed and altitude because it was unable to retract its landing gear due to the long period of storage.
The eleventh of Lufthansa’s 14 A380s, the nine-year-old aircraft known as “Düsseldorf,” was delivered to the airline in March 2014. Prior to the epidemic, it had been flying on routes between North America and Asia. Cleaning in Manila
The A380 will undergo more than 30 days of intensive maintenance in Manila before returning to service this summer. Lufthansa has stated that the interior of the aircraft won’t change, so passengers can continue to expect the same four-class configuration with 8 first-class suites, 78 business class, 52 premium economy, and 371 economy seats.
Last August, the maintenance and technical division of the German airline group, Lufthansa Technik, unveiled a second Airbus A380 maintenance hangar in Manila, bringing the total number of lines up to nine and increasing capacity by almost 20%.
What is ahead for Lufthansa’s A380s?
Despite later committing to removing “at least” three Airbus A380s from storage, the airline had earlier stated it would reactivate “four or five” of the double-deckers. One A380, D-AIMK, is the only one of Lufthansa’s fleet of A380s that has actually departed Teruel since the pandemic.
Teruel is a high-altitude Spanish airport that is perfect for long-term aircraft storage. Up to 60 training flights from Hannover (HAJ), Leipzig (LEJ), and Dresden are expected to be completed in May before the airline can use its A380s for commercial operations (DRS).
As Simple Flying reported last week, Lufthansa is considering using the Airbus A380 to fly to Los Angeles (LAX), Boston, and New York (JFK) from its hub in Munich. The eight-year-old A380 D-AIMM, which is scheduled to travel to Manila after D-AIMK next month, will be the following aircraft to be reactivated.
