Emirates Bought An Airbus A380 For $30 Million In Mid-December

Simple Flying

By Tom Boon

Published Jan 2, 2023

The aircraft is 14+ years old and has clocked more than 48,000 flying hours.

Photo: Richard Brew | Shutterstock

Dubai-based giant Emirates has purchased another Airbus A380, though this one didn’t come from the manufacturer. The aircraft purchased was already being flown by Emirates and was simply bought from the lessor, meaning that the airline now owns the aircraft rather than renting it.

With so many Airbus A380s bound for the scrap heap, Airbus A380s are currently going cheap. Supply is great, and demand for second-hand aircraft is non-existent. This is one of the reasons that the sale, first reported by Air Data News, particularly stands out from the used aircraft sales crowd.

Emirates buys A6-EDC

Emirates has purchased A6-EDC from the lessor that had previously leased it to the airline. According to the lessor's (Doric Nimrod Air One) financial accounts, the aircraft was sold for £25.3 million ($30.5 million). In 2018 Airbus' average list price of a new A380 was $445.6 Million. In its half-year results, published on December 15th, the lessor reported,

The operating lease is for an Airbus A380 aircraft. The term of the Lease is for 12 years ending December 2022 and no extension option. The Company and Emirates have now reached agreement that at the lease end date, currently expected to be 16 December 2022, the Company will sell the Asset to Emirates. The sale proceeds to be paid by Emirates to the Company are £25.30 million.

Photo: Craig Russell/Shutterstock.com

Both Planespotters.net and ch-aviation.com list the aircraft as now owned by Emirates. Interestingly, as well as saying how much the aircraft was sold for, the financial report also shows other interesting figures, such as how much it cost to lease and how much the aircraft depreciated.

From April 1st to September 30th of 2022, the lessor reported a rental income of £7,206,102 ($8,681,841) while the aircraft was just sitting stored at Dubai World Central airport. Of course, Emirates would likely have paid more for the aircraft as they also bore the costs of maintenance, repairs, and insurance while leasing the aircraft. Meanwhile, the asset depreciated by £3,520,117 ($4,240,746) during the same time period.

What now for MSN 16?

MSN 16 was the third double-decker giant to be delivered to Emirates. As A6-EDA and A6-EDB were both already scrapped, it remains the oldest aircraft in the Emirates fleet today, according to ch-aviation.

Aerial image showing Emirates Airbus A380s grounded at Dubai World Central Airport in April 2020

Photo: Emirates

It does seem unlikely that this aircraft will ever fly again now, though. Its last flight took place on March 24th, 2020, operating EK 319 from Tokyo Narita (NRT) to Dubai International Airport (DXB). It was ferried to Dubai World Central (DWC) on June 29th, 2020, where it has remained since.

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Given that slightly younger aircraft have been retired already, it could well be that Emirates will use EDC as a source of spare parts for other aircraft, as suggested by ADN. After all, why buy a new nose cone from Airbus when you have a perfectly good one sitting on a plane that will never fly again?

What do you make of the sale of A6-EDC? What will Emirates now do with the aircraft? Let us know your thoughts in the comments by tapping the blue button below!

Sources: Air Data News, ch-aviation.com, Doric Nimrod Air One, FlightRadar24.com, Planespotters.net