All Nippon Airways Airbus A380 has returned to the skies for the second time this week, as it looks to complete its final scheduled rotation of the month. The trip will take the jet across the Pacific and back as it heads to its only scheduled destination, Honolulu.

Just a handful of operators are currently operating regularly scheduled Airbus A380s at the moment. The most obvious of these is Emirates who remains incredibly committed to the type. This month, Japan's ANA joined the club for the first time since the pandemic, returning to Honolulu, but only on a minimal basis.

Swapping the Airbus A380s

Earlier this week, ANA flew its first Airbus A380 to be delivered, JA381A, to Honolulu. This marked the first time the giant of the skies had operated its main route in over a year. Now, ANA is switching things up, with its other A380 flying to Honolulu this time around.

JA382A departed from Tokyo Narita (NRT) at 20:13 local time this evening. This signified a minor delay of three minutes. Having left, the aircraft turned to the east and began its epic voyage across the Pacific Ocean. According to RadarBox.com at the time of writing, the quadjet is expected to touch down at 08:48.

All Nippon Airways, Airbus A380, Hawaii
Earlier this week, the first Airbus A380 flew to Honolulu too. Photo: Airbus

JA382A was the second of ANA's Airbus A380s to be delivered. According to ch-aviation.com, the aircraft first flew on December 18th, 2018. As a result, it is 2.66 years old as of today. The plane was delivered to the airline on May 17th, 2019, and is currently valued at 78.39 $million. Up until March 31st, 2021, the aircraft has operated just 423 flights, racking up 2,897 flight hours.

Back to storage?

It seems as though the aircraft will now essentially go back to storage following their brief excursion to Hawaii. According to schedule information from aviation data experts Cirium, the aircraft aren't scheduled to operate passenger flights again until October, when two rotations to Honolulu are planned on October 31st, ahead of two daily cycles after that.

All Nippon Airways, Airbus A380, Hawaii
ANA's third Airbus A380 is still yet to be delivered. Photo: Airbus

Interestingly, October 31st is when the aviation industry switches from its summer timetable to its winter timetable this year. As a result, the fact A380 flights resume on this date is likely more to do with the schedule plans than actual ambitions to return the aircraft to service. As such, it's not worth booking a flight just to be on the giant yet, with one exception.

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Not reflected on the schedule are a series of charter flights ANA has been operating with the giant of the skies. These started as short flights to nowhere out of Tokyo. In the months since, they have grown in length, with flights to nowhere also being operated out of other airports. Now, the airline is also offering two-day staycation charters with the jet.

Are you glad to see ANA utilizing both of its Airbus A380 aircraft? Let us know what you think and why in the comments down below!