Farewell: Final China Southern A380s Depart The Airline

China Southern Airlines announced around a year ago that it would retire its Airbus A380 fleet, a decision that didn’t necessarily come as a shock. However, in the past few days, we’ve seen the final two units head to the Californian desert.

This is a sign of the times and follows in the footsteps of Malaysia Airlines. An airline that also sent its last aircraft to storage this week as it determines its best course of action.

While already decided, it drives the nail into the coffin of China Southern’s A380 operations. They were the first in China to fly the widebody and, at its peak, flew a total of six.

China Southern decided to retire the A380 for several reasons.

Notably, operating the A380 remains expensive. While the aircraft is popular with passengers, it only works in specific markets. For an airline like China Southern, even when it was flying, the A380 always had problems.

Smaller widebodies like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 have quickly moved to the forefront of airlines’ wish lists. However, China Southern reaps greater rewards by flying twin-engined widebodies rather than quad-engined aircraft.

The aviation market is also ever-changing. Trends are adapting, and what is efficient now wasn’t the same 20 years ago. For China Southern to keep flying the A380 in this climate would’ve been highly frowned upon.

Harking back to the 787s, 777s and Airbus A350s, all aircraft that can operate more efficiently. They offer more flexibility than the A380 provides airlines.

The pandemic that we’ve battled through allowed airlines to reevaluate their fleet. Whether they wanted to or not, they had to determine what aircraft types were surplus to requirements.

For China Southern, it became clear that continuing with the world’s largest passenger plane would’ve hurt the business. They were an airline already severely struggling due to the pandemic.

Asia is one of the most demanding markets and still isn’t recovering at the rates required for the airlines based there. Especially for Chinese-based airlines.

This means widebody aircraft are an inconvenience for these airlines right now. One can only imagine, then, just how impactful retaining a double-decker, quad-engined plane would’ve been at this point.

China Southern’s removal of its final two Airbus A380S can only be described as an end of an era. It is also a logical step for the airline, a decision made for the carrier’s long term.

Ultimately, though, the decision means more than that. While some airlines bring the aircraft back into service, others have already removed them for good, a sign of the industry adjusting and airlines being forced to adapt to survive.