A couple of weeks ago, I covered how a former Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 suddenly returned to the skies, as it’s being prepared for a “new A380 customer.” Then several days ago I covered how another A380 was seemingly being reactivated, with no explanation as to what was going on. Well, we now know what’s going on with this plane, and it’s probably not that exciting for passengers.
In this post:
Former Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380 flies to Abu Dhabi
On October 1, 2025, a 12-year-old former Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380 with the registration code 2-JAYN flew from Tarbes, France (LDE), to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (AUH), in a flight time of 6hr35min. In Abu Dhabi, the plane was taxied to the Etihad Engineering area of the airport.
Several days prior to that, on September 26, 2025, that plane flew around France for 2hr55min, clearly in preparation for some sort of return to service. Before that, the plane had been in long term storage since December 2022, with the widely held belief being that the plane would just eventually be scrapped.
Malaysia Airlines took delivery of this plane back in March 2013, and it was the 100th A380 ever produced. The airline could never fully figure out what to do with its A380s, and the plane wasn’t utilized all that much. In total, this frame had fewer than 24,000 flight hours, across fewer than 2,300 flights.
While the plane was registered as 9M-MNF back when it flew for Malaysia Airlines, in March 2023, it was reregistered as EI-HKF, with the new owner being Airbus Financial Services. Then in March 2024, it was reregistered as 2-JAYN, while maintaining the same owner.
What’s the plan for this mystery Airbus A380?
In recent weeks, we’ve seen two Airbus A380s reactivated that otherwise seemed like they were heading to the scrapper. After all, there’s not much secondhand demand for the Airbus A380 (especially with Global Airlines’ A380 now being in its rightful place).
Based on two A380s being reactivated in such a short timeframe, you’d almost assume that both planes were part of the same project. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case. The two planes were flown to different places, and one plane has a mysterious ownership structure, while the other plane is owned by Airbus.
What’s going on with this latest A380, the one that used to fly for Malaysia Airlines? The explanation is pretty straightforward. After undergoing heavy maintenance, the plane will serve as a future test aircraft for Airbus, intended to test new innovations.
Now, I wouldn’t expect those innovations are specific to any sort of revival of the A380, but instead, it’s presumably to test other new technologies. We don’t yet have any details beyond that, but I imagine that we’ll learn more over time.
So yeah, Etihad Engineering is simply performing the maintenance on this aircraft, and the plane doesn’t otherwise have anything to do with Etihad. While Etihad has been reactivating all of its available A380s, unfortunately the airline isn’t expanding its A380 fleet beyond that (unsurprisingly).
Bottom line
Another retired Airbus A380 returned to the skies recently, after being grounded for nearly three years. The former Malaysia Airlines jumbo has been owned by Airbus for most of the time it has been in storage, but was suddenly flown to Abu Dhabi.
While there was some mystery around what was going on here, the explanation is actually pretty straightforward — the plane will be used by Airbus as a test aircraft, after undergoing heavy maintenance. So don’t expect the plane will ever enter passenger service again.
At least we still have that other mystery A380, which could enter service in some capacity.
What do you make of this former Malaysia Airlines A380 being reactivated?
This aircraft will serve as an Airbus test aircraft.
This aircraft (2-JAYN) will undergo an extensive maintenance program at Etihad Airways' dedicated A380 facility, allowing Airbus to use it as a test platform for new engines and technologies.
The aircraft will be tested with the CFM RISE open fan engine, which is being considered as the future engine for the new aircraft that will replace the A320neo family. Testing is scheduled to begin on this...
This aircraft will serve as an Airbus test aircraft.
This aircraft (2-JAYN) will undergo an extensive maintenance program at Etihad Airways' dedicated A380 facility, allowing Airbus to use it as a test platform for new engines and technologies.
The aircraft will be tested with the CFM RISE open fan engine, which is being considered as the future engine for the new aircraft that will replace the A320neo family. Testing is scheduled to begin on this A380 by the end of 2026.