A year ago, it looked as though British Airways might never bring the Airbus A380 back, with aircraft being sent out to long-term storage around the world. Earlier this year, the airline’s CEO Sean Doyle revealed we would see the jet return to service, and on Monday, the airline operated its first A380 flight in over a year, heading to Frankfurt and then Madrid.
More A380 destinations planned
It seems as though British Airways is planning to put even more Airbus A380s into service with the start of the Summer 2022 schedule. According to Cirium, and confirmed by ba.com, British Airways has daily A380 flights scheduled to both San Francisco and Singapore from March 27th onwards.
Interestingly, One Mile At A Time spotted that Dallas is also scheduled as a daily Airbus A380 flight from March 27th, as reflected on ba.com. Cirium data is updated once a week and currently doesn’t list Dallas, suggesting it was a recent addition to the schedule (since Saturday).
Subject to change
As always, when booking flights so far in advance, it is always possible that the aircraft could be swapped, with Head For Points reporting,
“You have NO RIGHTS if British Airways swaps your flight back to [another aircraft]”
As such, if you are booking any flights specifically for the Airbus A380, you should be aware that British Airways could ultimately change the aircraft for a different type, such as the Airbus A350, Boeing 777, or Boeing 787. This is increasingly likely at the moment, given the rapid situational changes prompted by the evolution of COVID-19.
Interestingly, the current Airbus A380 schedule loaded into the booking engine only runs until the end of February 2022. This sees British Airways sending the giant to Dubai, Los Angeles, and Miami from December, with Johannesburg replacing Los Angeles in January.
Given that Dallas has been recently added, it would suggest that the airline is planning where it wants to send the A380 next summer but has yet to update its schedule for most of March. It seems incredibly unlikely that the airline would temporarily ground the jet once more for a month before launching a bunch more destinations.
