Category: Airlines

Are you looking for a great new entrepreneurial opportunity? Why not buy some used Airbus A380s and start your own airline? Second-hand aircraft have been a launching pad for billionaires from Sir Richard Branson, who started Virgin Atlantic with a used 747, to the late Kirk Kerkorian, who turned a used DC-3 into an airline asset he later parlayed into ownership of MGM.

Such an opportunity may be here again for the right (and well-financed) entrepreneur. Since Airbus announced the coming end of A380 manufacture, airlines like Singapore, Lufthansa and most recently Air France have been rushing towards the exits of A380 ownership. Recent reports about possible wing cracks in early models (again) may provide added impetus. Reports are that seven Airbus A380 aircraft are in storage in France, almost 3% of the total of 238 manufactured. A pair have reportedly been scrapped.

Still, all the potential airline mogul needs to do is create a start-up airline (or charter, or, possibly, a freight carrier) with routes that can keep a 500-seat A380 or two packed full. With seven planes parked and more coming, (Lufthansa is returning its aircraft to the manufacturer as part of a deal for new aircraft) Airbus will no doubt cut you a sweet deal on a used A380, original list price $446 million.

There’s just one problem. The budding airline entrepreneur will need to figure out how to make money with the airplane, apparently something that neither most airlines or Airbus have figured out. (An exception may be Emirates, which owns 111 of the world’s 238 A380 aircraft and has aggressively used them to build traffic through Dubai Airport, which leads the world in annual international travelers with 88 million.)

Ironically, Virgin Atlantic, the creation of entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, was a launch customer for the A380, ordering six in 2001. It finally canceled the order in 2018 without ever taking delivery.

While entrepreneurs willing to take a chance on the A380 can no doubt get a substantial discount off the $446 million list price, the plane’s costs of operation and maintenance remain substantial. You’ll still need a large crew (Qantas operates the plane with three in the cockpit, 21 in the cabin), and pay a cost of operation estimated at $26,000 to $29,000 an hour, one of the highest in the airline industry. Those four engines are thirsty; that cost included roughly $17, 467 worth of fuel.

Simple Flying quoted the Australian Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics , “To achieve break-even at 80% seat factor (440 seats occupied including first class and business class), average ticket price should be about $700 one way and $1400 return.”

Compounding the usability problem, only a relative handful of world airports are specifically designed to accommodate the A380. The Top 20 airport list is led, of course, by Dubai. Most of the world’s busiest airports are on it, including Los Angeles, Tokyo, London Heathrow, Paris, New York JFK, Beijing, Shanghai, and Frankfurt. Not on the list is the world’s busiest, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, reflecting the fact that no US carrier has ever operated the A380.

Other airports can accommodate the A380, but at many, operations will create complications. Not only does the aircraft weigh more than a million pounds when fully loaded with passengers, luggage, cargo and fuel, it needs a special jet bridge to efficiently handle loading of its double-decker configuration.

The A380 was designed to fly huge numbers of passengers to various “hub” cities. The idea was that once they arrived, passengers going elsewhere would board another plane and fly to their destination. However, most passengers prefer flying point-to-point, which is now possible in much smaller, more efficient aircraft. Travelers heading from New York to Singapore, for example, no longer must fly to Los Angeles or San Francisco and switch to a different aircraft. Singapore Airlines now offers a 19-hour direct flight, using Airbus’ own twin-engine A350 900ULR.

While there is an almost non-existent used market for A380 aircraft, there is still demand for an even older jumbo, the Boeing 747. However, that market is driven by demand for dedicated air freighters. While a cargo version of the A380 was designed, production delays frustrated launch cargo customers FedEx and UPS to the point where they cancelled their orders.

Without freighter orders, Airbus decided to concentrate on the passenger craft, so no freighter was ever built. It is unclear whether conversion of existing passenger aircraft to freighter configuration would even be possible, let alone economic.

Just as no airline at this point seems to buy a new A380, few to want to buy, lease or rent a used one. But entrepreneurs won’t be stopped, so there is at least one exception, the Portuguese-based charter operator Hi Fly. Hi Fly became the first charter airline with an A380 in 2018.

The operator was busy last summer bailing out customers like Norwegian and Air Austral. Both airlines had similar problems; Boeing 787 Dreamliners grounded for engine checks during the height of the tourist season. Each contracted with Hi Fly to supply a “wet lease” A380, complete with crew and maintenance . But this summer, One Mile At A Time says the Hi Fly A380 is “Still Doing A Whole Lot Of Nothing.”

Nonetheless, the CEO of Hi Fly, Paulo Mirpuri, is sanguine about the future of the A380. He told Forbes.com, “The aircraft is performing well, flying all over the world, the main markets out of Europe so far being in Africa, USA, and South America. Other than for planned maintenance over the last winter, the aircraft has been operationally available with a high degree of dispatch reliability.”

Like a true entrepreneur, Mirpuri clearly believes in his product. “Hi Fly plans to expand further its fleet of A380s. It is a technically very advanced aircraft, loved by the passengers and it fits well in a number of missions and routes.”