The pandemic has been terrible for the Airbus A380, as several airlines decided to retire their super jumbos. In February 2022, China Southern revealed it would retire its A380 fleet. Well, the airline will be operating its final passenger flight with the jet this weekend.
In this post:
China Southern’s A380s ending service
China Southern is the latest airline to retire its Airbus A380 fleet. The Guangzhou-based airline has five A380s in its fleet, which it took delivery of between 2011 and 2013. The planes were initially ordered in 2005, and China Southern was the only Chinese carrier to order the jet.
Two of the Airbus A380s (with the registration codes B-6136 and B-6137) were flown from Guangzhou, China (CAN), to Victorville, California (VCV), in late February 2022, where they were decommissioned. The remaining three A380s will officially be taken out of service shortly.
China Southern’s last passenger A380 rotation will be this weekend from Guangzhou to Los Angeles, using the plane with the registration code B-6139. Specifically, the following are the last two passenger flights with the jet:
11/05 CZ327 Guangzhou to Los Angeles departing 9:30PM arriving 7:10PM
11/06 CZ328 Los Angeles to Guangzhou departing 10:20PM arriving 5:40AM (+2 days)
The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger jet in the world, and China Southern’s Airbus A380s feature a total of 506 seats. This includes eight first class seats, 70 business class seats, and 428 economy class seats.
Historically China Southern has flown Airbus A380s primarily from Guangzhou to Amsterdam, Beijing, Los Angeles, and Sydney. Some may recall my 2014 China Southern first class flight from Los Angeles to Guangzhou… #DucDeParis
Why couldn’t China Southern make the A380 work?
Unfortunately the Airbus A380 hasn’t worked out nearly the way Airbus hoped, and production on the aircraft has already ended. With the world population continuing to grow, and with demand for air travel continuing to increase, you’d think there would be demand for such a large jet. That’s especially true for China, which has the world’s largest population.
The reality is that China Southern was struggling to make the A380 work pre-pandemic, and that’s even more challenging now:
- China’s international borders continue to remain largely closed, and the country has a quarantine requirement; unlike other countries, there’s no indication of restrictions being lifted anytime soon
- For many airlines, cargo has proven to be lucrative during the pandemic; unfortunately while the A380 is efficient in terms of the number of passengers it can carry, it isn’t at all efficient in terms of cargo capabilities
- Airplanes like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 have proven much more popular with airlines; they’re lower capacity and still fuel efficient, making the planes easier to fill, which is more important than ever before
Unfortunately I’m not at all surprised to see China Southern retiring its A380 fleet. If anything, I’m surprised it took this long.
Bottom line
China Southern is becoming the latest airline to retire the A380, as the airline is getting rid of its fleet of five super jumbos. The planes are an average of around 10 years old, so it’s sad to see them retired so early. Then again, with China’s ongoing travel restrictions, it’s anyone’s guess when there will be enough demand to warrant flying these planes again.
If you’re near LAX and want to do some plane spotting this weekend, I’d recommend maybe watching China Southern’s final A380 service.
Are you surprised to see China Southern retiring its A380s?
Idiotic move. Another example of airline executives putting profit over product – trying to make a few other dollars by taking away what is a superior flight experience to a tiny 787.
The only reason the A380 was bought by China (China Southern but it could have been any airline directed to do so by CAAC) was to be able to dismantle one (or more as necessary) piece by piece to study and copy them, so as to come, 10 or 20 years later, with an "improved" and certainly cheaper Chinese versiont to compete in the world's market. They never had the need for it from an...
The only reason the A380 was bought by China (China Southern but it could have been any airline directed to do so by CAAC) was to be able to dismantle one (or more as necessary) piece by piece to study and copy them, so as to come, 10 or 20 years later, with an "improved" and certainly cheaper Chinese versiont to compete in the world's market. They never had the need for it from an operational point of view and buying 5 for a country with the size and the population of China made no sense anyway: 20 or 40, yes, 5 no.
This is exactly what happened with the Japanese High Speed Train Shinkansen, 10 of which were bought 30 years ago, with 200 or 300 "Chinese" improved versions (outright copies with no regards to intellectual property) now plying China's tracks.
I’ve yet to fly on an airline from the PRC that has service and catering standards that come anywhere near close to any airline from any part of the world. Regardless of how modern or fancy their fleet is it’s an underwhelming experience. Aeroflot in the early 1990s still eclipses what the Chinese airlines dish out today. China is a facade whose cracks are turning into fault lines. Let’s just hope they don’t drag us...
I’ve yet to fly on an airline from the PRC that has service and catering standards that come anywhere near close to any airline from any part of the world. Regardless of how modern or fancy their fleet is it’s an underwhelming experience. Aeroflot in the early 1990s still eclipses what the Chinese airlines dish out today. China is a facade whose cracks are turning into fault lines. Let’s just hope they don’t drag us all down with them. And we need to detox from our addiction to cheap stuff that made them such a force.
I am not surprised if anything related to China. My flight from China back to Canada was melted down (forced cancel) due to COVID test positive found in its previous in coming flight, just a week before departure. They don’t really care what’s the impact on individual people, business or reputation. The country becomes so unreasonable that anything could happen.
With the curently Chinese policy of Five-ones, one Airline, one foreign country, one route, one flight for one week.
A380 with the highest pax capacity would be a great use Under this policy, but there is also a curcit breaker policy, with certain number of infectant onboard, the airline need to suspend its flights fir certainly amount of period. It counts by number not percentage, Hence having a large number of pax on a...
With the curently Chinese policy of Five-ones, one Airline, one foreign country, one route, one flight for one week.
A380 with the highest pax capacity would be a great use Under this policy, but there is also a curcit breaker policy, with certain number of infectant onboard, the airline need to suspend its flights fir certainly amount of period. It counts by number not percentage, Hence having a large number of pax on a flight makes it has higher chance of its flight being suspened.
With even tighter measure on Domestic Travel this year, making it little use to fly such a large aircraft, while many airlines has been dumping widebodies capacity on key Domestic routes already, it is very hard to fill up an aircraft.
I currently live in China, and following airlines news, there isn't much publicity of CZ last A380 flights...
It was said that CZ ordered these A380s as part of a political deal between China and EU. (Most wide-body orders from the "Big 3" Chinese airlines and their affiliates are political. If Beijing wants to do more business with EU, then they sign a major deal with Airbus, and Boeing vice versa.)
CAAC originally asked Air China to take the 380s but they were reluctant (as they were happy with their 777-300ERs). Then China...
It was said that CZ ordered these A380s as part of a political deal between China and EU. (Most wide-body orders from the "Big 3" Chinese airlines and their affiliates are political. If Beijing wants to do more business with EU, then they sign a major deal with Airbus, and Boeing vice versa.)
CAAC originally asked Air China to take the 380s but they were reluctant (as they were happy with their 777-300ERs). Then China Southern decided to take the A380s, in exchange for approval from CAAC to launch long-haul flights from Beijing, such as PEK-CDG, PEK-JFK, and PEK-AMS.
Nevertheless, due to the leadership change at CAAC after the A380 deal, and the opposition from Air China, China Southern was only able to fly A380 on its PEK-AMS route (and seasonal only due to insufficient demand), and never got the approval to launch PEK-CDG and PEK-JFK they once wished to.
PEK-AMS launched way before the turned of the century.
I meant that they were only able to put their A380s on the PEK-AMS route, not that they were able to launch the PEK-AMS route.
They originally wished to launch PEK-JFK and PEK-CDG with their A380s, but none of the routes came to fruition due to the pushback from Air China.
FedEx really should take up the offer by Airbus and trial the A380 in a cargo only configuration.
Possibly... but they would come under heavy fire for not using the B-747-800 instead (and I am surprised that they are not....) If they have no use for 747-800s, I do not see them having any for the A380.
When China Southern bought A380 they wanted to get into high profit international route, but held back by CAAC to cover for Air China, for a while, they can only put A380 on PEK - CAN route.
Since Emirates is really the only airline to make a success of the A380 I wonder why they never pick up any on the 2nd hand market.
Maybe they can sell them to EK
They could have.... but those which have not been stored indefinitely in a US Desert and are still in China are being stripped piece by piece for techical spying.
China Southern has been flying an A380 CAN- MEL for the past year, it's a weekly sevice
Sorry lucky but you’re wrong. The a380 was extremely profitable in the LAX-CAN route pre-pandemic It’s unfortunate that COVID happened and the geopolitic situation started rolling. It was operating daily between LAX and CAN and I can firmly say that it was at full capacity majority of the time. They even had a 777 operating every odd days to meet demand.
But for CZs sake they are owned by the government so even if...
Sorry lucky but you’re wrong. The a380 was extremely profitable in the LAX-CAN route pre-pandemic It’s unfortunate that COVID happened and the geopolitic situation started rolling. It was operating daily between LAX and CAN and I can firmly say that it was at full capacity majority of the time. They even had a 777 operating every odd days to meet demand.
But for CZs sake they are owned by the government so even if they are losing at a big loss, it won’t affect their overall business.
It is unfortunate that no one is looking to deploy a380s in Africa. The problem of suitable airports aside. The hub and spoke model can still work in Africa to deliver cheap intercontinental flights, and the a380 is built for this model. For instance, if an airline stations an a380 in West African country and pulls in passengers from other WA countries, and from East and Central Africa. Such airline can deliver lower prices than, say, United.
It has high occupancy, however, CZ's breakeven point for all NA route is very high given how cheap they sell their tickets. Although it is not to the extent of 90%+ like the MF FOC-JFK route.
This is probably one of the immediate results of HSR investment. Without HSR (a high capacity mode of transportation), A380 could’ve worked for domestic travel in China.
How else would you transport 1.4 billion people on largest human migration in the world in span of 3 weeks?
Either an A380 or a 16-car high speed train. Also what’s the lifecycle/flight cycle of A380 again? That number is very small in years if used in domestic short haul
Buying 5 A380s never was about making it work. Like everything in China, it was about learning everything there is to learn about a new product, dissecting it and, where possible, coming up with a competing cheaper product which will be offered directly against the manufacturer from which they bought originally.
In the same vein, China Southern (again... ) has just bought 2 (TWO !!!) A 319 Neo, for which by the way they are...
Buying 5 A380s never was about making it work. Like everything in China, it was about learning everything there is to learn about a new product, dissecting it and, where possible, coming up with a competing cheaper product which will be offered directly against the manufacturer from which they bought originally.
In the same vein, China Southern (again... ) has just bought 2 (TWO !!!) A 319 Neo, for which by the way they are the original customer.
How does a country of 1.4 billion people expect to manage profitably a sub-fleet of 2 aircraft ? It makes no sense unless it is precisely to learn and copy (which by the way is nothing wrong, just smart).
As to whether Airbus should have sold them to China, that's another matter but I guess it is tough to refuse this to one of your best customers, especially when there is an Airbus assembly line in the country.
Was it Lenin who said that "The capitalists are so stupid that they will sell us the rope to hang them"?
Lucky should boycott all airlines of the People's Republic of China and stop writing articles about them until they promise not to invade Taiwan. We now know that communist bullies invade countries, like Russia did Ukraine. They did it in 2014 and they are doing it bigger in 2022.
Gee, thank you Derek ... so what do we do when countries like the USA invade Vietnam, or middle Eastern countries (just to mention a few)?
I am not in favour of what is happening currently in Russia or mainland China, but that doesn't give you a free pass to make pronouncements on what the owner of this website 'should' do to appease your political theology..
The utter tripe that gets posted here sometimes is truly astounding.
Love the aircraft, too bad it's mismanaged and misused. Some other countries will be happy to purchase them for cheap
You seem to forget a few things from history. Bush had UN approval to act. Bush was wrong and should be a war criminal, but he had international approval and you can say that in America. China steals almost everything and breaks its commitments constantly. The USA did not invade Vietnam. Look to the north of Vietnam to see the real problem. China is an authoritarian government that builds concentration camps. Maybe one day you...
You seem to forget a few things from history. Bush had UN approval to act. Bush was wrong and should be a war criminal, but he had international approval and you can say that in America. China steals almost everything and breaks its commitments constantly. The USA did not invade Vietnam. Look to the north of Vietnam to see the real problem. China is an authoritarian government that builds concentration camps. Maybe one day you will be put in a concentration camp and then you will understand what is wrong with modern china. Do you still have your organs? How about a nice 500 dollar a month job. Some people are so thick. China is at war with the USA and apologists keep pretending it is not true. Just like the Wuhan lab.
@Paul
You seem to forget a few things from history. USA built concentration camps too.
UN approval? UN is just a puppet to give legitimacy to powerful nations. Why do you think only few countries have veto power.
But I agree USA did not invade Vietnam, just like Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Crimea, S.Korea or Taiwan the big nations are there to liberate or restore peace ;). It's only the latter two that...
@Paul
You seem to forget a few things from history. USA built concentration camps too.
UN approval? UN is just a puppet to give legitimacy to powerful nations. Why do you think only few countries have veto power.
But I agree USA did not invade Vietnam, just like Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Crimea, S.Korea or Taiwan the big nations are there to liberate or restore peace ;). It's only the latter two that is still on going because they are up against nuclear powers too. It's not easy to bully countries with nukes.
And by the way you should thank those $500 a month jobs because it keeps your iPhone under $3000 and most of your everyday goods from costing you 5 times more.
Derek got triggered…
China will get Taiwan back. If ROC wanted independence so badly, they should’ve won the civil war back in the days.
There’s only one USA, one German, one Vietnam now (and the winner of the war gained control). Same will happen with one China. Even the confederates admitted defeat and there’s only one USA. Government of ROC should be ashamed of themselves.
And Derek. Stop policing the world. You have no moral high grounds to lecture anyone.
learn the history, people have been living in Taiwan way before any Chinese stepped foot on the island, no matter what happens between ROC and PRC, PRC never ruled and owned the island, ROC occupying and ruling the island does not give PRC legal rights to do the same thing, at least not without a war. PRC can do whatever they want to the KMT that fled to the island, but not the people of Taiwan which were never ruled by PRC.
why is the chinese getting rid a380s
they’re are not old enough so why
is the chinese government are
wasting money the 747s have been going for years now and they are still
going i love them planes the 380s
Air China is the sole operator for 747 passenger plane in China. As the only flag carrier in China, it has a dominant position in the Beijing market, where there is a high percentage of business and government travellers, and they have all the premium international routes where A380 would typically work. That's why they can do more comfortably with their 747s.
However, for China Southern, its home airport is Guangzhou where customers are more...
Air China is the sole operator for 747 passenger plane in China. As the only flag carrier in China, it has a dominant position in the Beijing market, where there is a high percentage of business and government travellers, and they have all the premium international routes where A380 would typically work. That's why they can do more comfortably with their 747s.
However, for China Southern, its home airport is Guangzhou where customers are more price sensitive and they have long struggled to get premium international routes from Beijing.
Because they are basically China's Air Force One fleet making money on commercial routes.
You state that China Southern was the only Chinese carrier to order the A380, but doesn't China Eastern also have A380s in their fleet?
No, they don't and they never have
My bad! got the liveries mixed up!
Can't believe it was 2014 when you did the China Southern First review! Time has marched on! Hoping 2022 has some equally entertaining reviews!
I remember your China Southern first class fondly, and I cackle internally thinking about it.
I think it’s time (when China opens) to review their 777 first and business class! I wonder what Champagne they’re serving now?
Population 1.4 billion and they can't make money on the A380? What a complete utter shambles!
No one is making money with an a380. There's a reason such vanity projects have met an early demise.
China Southern removed first class in their 777 fleet a few years back. With the A380 retiring, they won't be offering first class at all.
As for the champagne, after the post of Lucky, they have improved a lot compared to themselves. The current champagne brand you will find in business class is Piper-Heidsieck.
As a Chinese myself and many of my colleagues and friends, we would find the Chinese menu offered by China...
China Southern removed first class in their 777 fleet a few years back. With the A380 retiring, they won't be offering first class at all.
As for the champagne, after the post of Lucky, they have improved a lot compared to themselves. The current champagne brand you will find in business class is Piper-Heidsieck.
As a Chinese myself and many of my colleagues and friends, we would find the Chinese menu offered by China Southern the best of the big 3. I have never tried their western menu, but heard it's not quite appetizing.
Were they even able to fill them up? I think now more carriers are transitioning from capacity to a frequency model. With that being said, Asiana should be next to retire theirs especially if the merger with Korean goes through.