Lufthansa first reactivated Airbus A380 has taken off from Frankfurt ahead of a 13-hour flight to the Philippines. The aircraft is currently heading to Manila, where it will be restored before re-entering service in the summer.

D-AIMK gearing up for return

The Lufthansa Airbus A380 (registration: D-AIMK) took off from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) at 06:44 on Sunday, January 29th - special flight LH9922 will arrive at Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) in the early hours of Monday morning after a 13-hour journey.

D-AIMK is one of 14 Airbus A380s in Lufthansa's fleet - the A380 was placed in storage at Teruel Airport (TEV) during the early months of the COVID pandemic where it remained for almost two-and-a-half years before flying to Frankfurt on December 2nd, 2022 - on that occasion, the plane had to fly at a slower speed and lower altitude as it could not retract its landing gear after years of storage.

The nine-year-old A380, given the name "Düsseldorf", was delivered to Lufthansa in March 2014 as the 11th of its 14 A380s and had been active on both North American and Asian routes before the pandemic broke out.

Get the latest aviation news straight to your inbox: Sign up for our newsletters today.

Maintenance in Manila

The A380 will receive over 30 days of heavy maintenance in Manila ahead of its re-entry to service this summer - Lufthansa has clarified that there won't be any changes to the plane's interior, so travelers can expect the same four-class layout featuring eight first class suites, 78 business class, 52 premium economy and 371 economy seats.

The German airline group's maintenance and technical subsidiary, Lufthansa Technik, opened another Airbus A380 maintenance hangar in Manila last August, adding another three maintenance lines to the existing seven and upping its capacity by around 20%.

Discover more aviation news with Simple Flying.

What next for Lufthansa's A380s?

The airline had initially claimed it would reactivate "four or five" of the double-deckers, although it has since committed to withdrawing "at least" three Airbus A380s from storage. The majority of Lufthansa's A380s have been in storage at Teruel, the high-altitude Spanish airport ideally suited to long-term aircraft storage - only one A380, D-AIMK, has actually left Teruel since the pandemic.

Before the airline can operate its A380s commercially, it plans to complete up to 60 training flights in May from Hannover (HAJ), Leipzig (LEJ), and Dresden (DRS). As Simple Flying revealed last week, Lufthansa's tentative Airbus A380 plans will see the planes serve New York (JFK), Boston (BOS), and Los Angeles (LAX) from its Munich hub. As for which plane will be reactivated next, D-AIMM, an eight-year-old A380, is earmarked to follow D-AIMK to Manila next month, followed by D-AIML.

Are you happy to see Lufthansa's first reactivated Airbus A380 preparing for a full return? Let us know in the comments.

• 

  Lufthansa

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  LH/DLH

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Frankfurt Airport, Munich Airport

  Year Founded:

  1953

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  Airline Group:

  Lufthansa Group

  CEO:

  Carsten Spohr

  Country:

  Germany