China Southern Retiring Airbus A380 Fleet

Several airlines decided to retire their super jumbos, which has been terrible for the A380. You can now add another airline to that list.

China Southern’s A380s ending service

China Southern will retire its A380 fleet. The Guangzhou-based airline has five A380s in its fleet. China Southern was the only Chinese carrier to order the jet.

The two A380s that are currently en route from Guangzhou, China to Victorville, California are likely to be retired. The remaining three A380s are expected to be retired in 2022.

The largest passenger jet in the world is the A380, and China Southern has 506 seats on the plane. Eight first class seats, 70 business class seats, and 428 economy class seats are included.

China Southern has flown the A380s from Guangzhou to Amsterdam, Beijing, Los Angeles, and Sydney. My first class flight from Los Angeles to Guangzhou was from China Southern.

Why couldn’t China Southern make the A380 work?

The A380 hasn't worked out as expected, and production on the aircraft has already ended. With the world population continuing to grow, and with demand for air travel continuing to increase, you would think there would be demand for such a large jet. China has the world's largest population.

China Southern was struggling to make the A380 before it became a problem.

• China’s international borders continue to remain largely closed, and the country has a quarantine requirement; unlike other countries, there’s no indication of restrictions being lifted anytime soon
• For many airlines, cargo has proven to be lucrative during the pandemic; unfortunately while the A380 is efficient in terms of the number of passengers it can carry, it isn’t at all efficient in terms of cargo capabilities
• Airplanes like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 have proven much more popular with airlines; they’re lower capacity and still fuel efficient, making the planes easier to fill, which is more important than ever before

I am not surprised that China Southern is retiring its A380 fleet. I'm surprised it took this long.

Bottom line

China Southern will become the latest airline to retire the A380, as it will get rid of its fleet of five super jumbos. The planes are an average of 10 years old, so it is sad to see them retired so early. With China's ongoing travel restrictions, it's anyone's guess when there will be enough demand to fly these planes again.

China Southern is retiring its A380s.