Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways has welcomed back its first Airbus A380 from storage. Tarmac Aerosave had been babysitting the superjumbo for 21 months at its site in Teruel, Spain, before heading to Tabres, France, for maintenance. The Middle-Eastern carrier had hibernated all of its ten A380s in April 2021, as the aviation industry was in crisis mode during the depths of the pandemic.The eight-year-old A380 last flew from Teruel Airport (TEV) to Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport (LDE) as EY9750.

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The journey home

A6-APG, the Airbus A380-800, which joined the team at Etihad in 2015, departed from Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport (LDE) on March 9, direct for Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) operating as EY9752.

The flight took off from Tabres at 17:02 before touching down at Abu Dhabi at 02:51 on March 10, after a direct flight taking six hours and 48 minutes.

Four to be returned

At this stage, Etihad has announced they plan to return four of its Airbus A380s from storage, following Lufthansa's return of its A380 in December, as some carriers look to reinstate the superjumbo on selected routes.

Only bound for London Heathrow

Looking at the stat's from Cirium, Etihad plans to deploy its recently returned A380 solely to London Heathrow (LHR). Preparing for its reintroduction to commercial service in July, Etihad will operate the below A380 services this year (at the time of writing). Below is the planned number of direct services from its Abu Dhabi base:

And obviously, identical for flights operating from London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi:

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Operations pre-pandemic

Comparing the carrier's A380 operations to December 2019, a month before the pandemic started to cause havoc, the airline operated five A380 destinations.

• London Heathrow International Airport (LHR) - 94 direct flights
• New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) - 31 direct flights
• Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) - 48 direct flights
• Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN) - 31 direct flights
• Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) - 31 direct flights

This accounted for 235 outbound A380 flights from its Abu Dhabi base, a far cry from its current plans for its sole London Heathrow operation this year. As Etihad receives its other three A380s planned for service resumption, it would make sense that capacity and schedules to historic and new destinations may appear on the airline's route map.

Sources: Flightglobal, Cirium

• 

  Etihad Airways

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  EY/ETD

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Abu Dhabi International Airport

  Year Founded:

  2003

  CEO:

  Tony Douglas

  Country:

  United Arab Emirates

• 

  London Heathrow Airport

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  LHR-EGLL

  Country:

  United Kingdom

  CEO:

  John Holland-Kaye

  Passenger Count :

  19,392,178 (2021)

  Runways :

  09L/27R - 3,902m (12,802ft) | 09R/27L - 3,660m (12,008ft)

  Terminals:

  Terminal 2 | Terminal 3 | Terminal 4 | Terminal 5