The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted airlines greatly with many airlines reporting astonishing losses, with a vaccine still undergoing trials and Europe facing a second wave it seems that airlines will start to reshuffle their fleets and lay-off more staff. The Airbus A380 has been an aircraft that has been a casualty of the pandemic, we have already seen Air France retire its A380s and rumours that British Airways will retire their A380 Fleet the next airline to be considering the retirement of their A380s is German Flag Carrier, Lufthansa.

FLEET SHAKEUP

In April, Lufthansa announced that due to the drastic decrease in demand because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the airline would be cutting 22,000 jobs and retiring 23 aircraft, consisting of 11 A320s, 5 747-400s and 7 A340-600’s. Reports from Bloomberg suggest that the airline is considering retiring both the 747-400 and A380 fleets, as well as the majority of its A340 fleet.

However the impact of this fleet reduction will be far worse for employees of the airline, as mentioned above already 22,000 jobs are set to be cutout with more aircraft being retired there will be a surplus of pilots and cabin crew which will sadly have to lose their jobs.

OUT WITH THE OLD,IN WITH THE NEW

The Coronavirus pandemic has forced airlines to cut jobs, reduce fleet size and suspend routes all to save money and ensure the survival of the airline. The 2020’s are the century for fleet replacement Emirates was to receive their first of 135 777X aircraft, British Airways was to retire their 747 fleet in 2024 to make way for their 777X and A350 fleets, Qantas was to take take delivery of their A350-1000s for the first “project sunrise” flights between Sydney and London from around 2022-2023 and Lufthansa was to retire their 747-400s and A340s to make way for their 777X and 787-9s. However this was not the case the start of the decade has been the worst crisis to hit aviation yet and we still aren’t through it.

What do you think of this news?Have you flown any of the aircraft that Lufthansa are set to retire?will you miss the A380s,A340s and 747s or are you looking forward to the newer fleet?Let us know what you think in the comments below.