At noon today, a China Southern Airlines A380 took off from Guangzhou and its destination was Mojave, USA.
This A380 is the first A380 aircraft introduced by China Southern Airlines, and the Mojave Desert is the famous "aircraft graveyard" in the United States.
After that, another China Southern Airlines A380 aircraft also took off from Guangzhou, and the destination was also Mojave.
According to a reporter from China Business News, China Southern Airlines has signed relevant contracts for the withdrawal of A380 aircraft, and all five Airbus A380 aircraft owned by it will be withdrawn this year.
As the first and only airline in China to order the world's largest passenger aircraft, the A380, disputes over the economic benefits of the China Southern Airlines A380 have continued for many years. The operation strategy of the aircraft, however, the continuation of the epidemic, the only five A380 aircraft in China, still cannot escape the fate of "retirement".
China Southern Airlines A380 History
China Southern signed a framework agreement with Airbus to purchase five A380s on January 28, 2005. However, due to production problems and other reasons, China Southern's first A380 did not arrive until 2011.
However, in the first few years of receiving the A380, China Southern's A380 has been flying on domestic routes such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc., and has also flown domestic routes such as Beijing-Kunming. In other words, it's obviously overkill.
When China Southern Airlines first signed the A380 purchase contract, China Southern hoped to use the A380 to fly the international long-distance route from Beijing to Europe and the United States, but since Beijing is the base of Air China, it is not easy to obtain international high-quality air rights from Beijing. thing.
Finally, in October 2012, China Southern still used the A380 to fly the first international route from Guangzhou to Los Angeles, and then flew from Guangzhou to Australia one after another.
However, whether it is flying domestically or flying internationally from Guangzhou, it is not the most economical operation mode for the A380. In the first few years of the introduction of the A380, China Southern Airlines has also been paying for the loss of the A380.
In June 2015, China Southern Airlines' A380 finally got the opportunity to "fly out" from Beijing. After the application for high-quality international routes such as Beijing to Paris has been unable to be approved, China Southern Airlines chose the relatively easier existing route to replace the aircraft. Application-Beijing-Amsterdam route has not only been flown for many years, but also has no direct conflict with Air China, which has not launched this route.
After successfully "flying out" from Beijing, China Southern has planned an operation model for the A380 that matches the peak seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres: the Beijing-Amsterdam route will be implemented by the A380 during the peak season in the European market from June to September.
After the European market entered the off-season, this route was changed to the original A330, and the A380 was transferred to the Guangzhou-Sydney route in the upcoming peak season.
With the determination of the matching mode between the off-peak seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres, the gradual maturity of the domestic and international flight mode, and the fall in international oil prices, China Southern finally achieved the first profit of the A380 in the fifth year of its introduction.
Why "died young"
However, the single-plane profit did not open the highlight moment of China Southern Airlines A380.
In the following few years, the daily utilization rate of China Southern's A380 still lags far behind other wide-body aircraft, and it is difficult to make further breakthroughs on international routes.
A number of industry insiders pointed out to reporters that from the perspective of manufacturing alone, the A380 is definitely an outstanding model. It has the largest passenger aircraft wing in the world, and the double-deck cabin can accommodate nearly 700 passengers. The cabin is relatively quiet, but the world's largest aircraft is simply too big from a commercial point of view, and there are few such markets today that can fill more than 500 seats.
In addition, the "four-engine era" has passed, and the single-seat fuel consumption of the A380 is higher than that of the twin-engine B787.
It is precisely because of this that Airbus, the manufacturer of the A380, announced in 2019 that the A380 would be discontinued in 2021. Such a production line of the world's largest aircraft was closed after only 20 years of operation, due to insufficient orders from other airlines.
At the same time, Airbus has also begun to market the A350, which uses the innovative technology of the A380, but with fewer seats.
At present, airlines that still operate A380 aircraft are mainly airlines with mature hub operation models such as Emirates and Singapore Airlines.
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, the global air travel demand has greatly reduced. Air France, Lufthansa and other airlines have begun to accelerate the retirement of A380 aircraft, and China Southern Airlines' A380 has not been spared.
At present, among the five A380s of China Southern Airlines, in addition to the two that have been grounded as early as the end of October and early November last year, they have already flown to the "aircraft graveyard", and the other one has not flown for more than a week.
The two planes that are still performing flights recently, one just performed a one-way pickup from Guangzhou to Los Angeles on February 17, and a return pickup task, and the other performed a passenger pickup from Guangzhou to Sydney from February 19 to 20. Task.
According to the flight steward's data, during the Spring Festival, China Southern's A380s also mainly operate on routes from Guangzhou to Sydney and Melbourne, while Guangzhou and Amsterdam, which were once operated by A380s, have now been adjusted to A350s.