Global Airlines Acquires China Southern Airbus A380

Global Airlines is the suspicious UK-based Airbus A380 “airline startup.” Well, the airline has just announced that it has acquired its first Airbus A380, not to be confused with the other first Airbus A380 it acquired last year…

Global Airlines takes full ownership of first Airbus A380

Global Airlines has taken full ownership of the Airbus A380 with the MSN 120. The roughly 11-year-old jet was delivered to China Southern in 2013, before being put in storage in late 2022, as China Southern retired its Airbus A380 fleet.

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The aircraft is equipped with 506 seats, including eight first class suites, 70 business class seats, and 428 economy class seats.

Of course Global Airlines is promising the world’s finest passenger experience across the board, so presumably those interiors just won’t do for this leading airline.

Global Airlines has fully acquired the aircraft from Jet Midwest, and it now carries the registration code 9H-GLOBL. The airplane is currently at the Mojave Airport (MHV), where Business Class Aviation and HiFly have completed the return to service work for the aircraft.

The airline claims in a press release that it has told those working on bringing the plane back to service “to go above and beyond in terms of the return to service works.” Lol. The airline claims that the airplane will leave Mojave Airport in the next few weeks, “with its next destination announced in due course.” There’s a lot of “announced in due course” action at this airline, eh?

Here’s what James Asquith, CEO of Global Airlines, had to say about this development:

“Purchasing an aircraft takes a phenomenal amount of time, and over the past year, we, with support from partners, have been putting the building blocks in place to take full ownership of the aircraft and plan its first flight. 

“Lots of people predicted we wouldn’t make it even this far, and I couldn’t be happier to be giving MSN 120 a second lease of life. 

“The fact that after such a rigorous inspection from BCA and Hi Fly,the aircraft was found to be in such good condition is testemant not only to our unwavering commitment to safety, but to the enginerring excellence of Airbus. 

“I must also thank Jet Midwest for all their help and assistance this past year, and hopefully we will be able to work with them on identifying and acquiring more A380’s and developing our fleet.”

Wait, what about Global Airlines’ other first A380?!?

If the story of Global Airlines acquiring its first Airbus A380 sounds familiar, it’s for good reason. In May 2023, Global Airlines announced that it acquired its first Airbus A380:

“Global Airlines, the world’s newest long-haul airline, has made a significant leap towards revolutionising commercial aviation with the acquisition of its first A380 aircraft from Doric Aviation.”

“The acquisition of the A380 by Global Airlines was made at an undisclosed price, understood to be in the eight-figure range, demonstrating the airline’s dedication to acquiring top-quality assets and investing in its future success.”

That particular Airbus A380 was the 17-year-old jet with the registration code 9H-MIP. That plane first flew for Singapore Airlines, and then for HiFly, before reportedly being acquired by Global Airlines.

So what happened there? Who the heck knows, the airline isn’t even addressing that. In general, it doesn’t instill much confidence when the airline claims it’s acquiring its first plane multiple times. Like, did they storm the aircraft graveyard and just put some decals on the plane, or…? 😉

Now, to Global Airlines’ credit, the ex-China Southern A380 leaves the airline a lot better positioned to launch operations than the ex-Singapore Airlines A380. Long story short, the ex-Singapore Airlines A380 business class seats are no longer certified to fly, and here’s a thread by @thatjohn explaining why.

At least the ex-China Southern A380 interiors are fine to fly, if the airline chooses to launch operations that way. Global Airlines now claims that it plans to launch operations in late 2024, initially operating charter services, or something.

Bottom line

Global Airlines claims to have now fully acquired its first Airbus A380, which is a former China Southern jet. The airline claims the plane will be flying somewhere in the coming weeks, but won’t say what the destination is.

Perhaps the strangest thing about all of this — I mean, other than this concept altogether — is that in May 2023 the airline had also announced it acquired its first Airbus A380. I’m not sure what happened to that plane, because apparently it’s not the first A380 anymore.

What do you make of this Global Airlines A380 development?