The largest airline in the country, China Southern Airlinesconfirmed the dismantling of its last two “ Superjumbos » in its first half financial report.
As reported by the specialized site FlightGlobal, the Chinese carrier has formalized the retirement of A380 in its latest half-yearly report. The airline has withdrawn from service two of its five A380s in November 2021, and three of its A380s found themselves immobilized at the air and space port of Mojave (MHV), one of the most famous aircraft “graveyards” in the world, end of 2022. While two A380s had formally remained on its books until recently, one had to suspect that they were not going to be returned to service. The inaugural A380 flight for China Southern Airlines dates back to October 17, 2011.
China Southern will therefore rely on its more efficient twin-jet wide-body aircraft: notably the Airbus A350the Boeing 777 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Its long-haul fleet is made up of around a hundred wide-body aircraft, including 10 A330-200s, 26 A330-300s, 18 A350-900s, 15 Boeing 777-300ERs, 10 787-8s and 17 787-9s.
China Southern was the only Chinese airline to invest in the A380. In addition, it remained faithful to the A380 throughout the pandemic – operating it on high-demand domestic routes and repatriation flights – becoming the only airline in the world not to ground its A380 fleet, (although some units ended up being flown to the United States ).
