Officially Etihad Airways has seen the return of its first Airbus A380 from long-term storage. A6-APG is an A380-800 registered with Etihad Airways. The aircraft was delivered to the Abu-Dhabi-based airline in April 2016.
However, following the emergence of the global pandemic and the associated restrictions, the airline decided to ground its fleet of A380s. Per planespotters.net, the airline placed the aircraft in storage on the 19th of March, 2020. Following a period of storage in Abu Dhabi, the plane was ferried to Teruel in Spain for warm-weather storage. This is where it has spent most of its time in recent years.
Now, the airline will prepare for its eventual return to service as Etihad copes with the additional demand they’re seeing. Etihad Airways, and neighbour Qatar Airways, are just some airlines that have said they’re reluctantly bringing back the plane.
Etihad Airways will deploy its Airbus A380s on service to London Heathrow during the summer season. The airline plans to return four aircraft to service initially. All 4 of these will feature on the Heathrow flight. This means no other locations will see the A380 for now.
Etihad Airways, also joins Lufthansa who is plotting the return of their A380 for this upcoming summer season. One of Lufthansa’s A380s returned to Frankfurt Airport only a few days ago in preparation.
It’s nice to see the a380s are coming coming back! Especially the beautiful Etihad livery. I wonder how long this return of the a380s will last. It looks like for several years at least at this point. Keep the articles coming DJ, love to hear/read/watch them.
yas