Etihad Airways has reportedly just restarted crew training on its Airbus A380, the most significant sign yet that the Abu Dhabi-based airline is preparing to return the double-deck superjumbo to the skies in the very near future.

Like many airlines, Etihad grounded its 10-strong fleet of A380s at the start of the pandemic in early 2020 as passenger numbers tumbled and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) slammed shut its borders.

Etihad eventually sent its A380s into deep storage at special facilities in France and Spain where they were to be ‘indefinitely grounded’, although the then chief executive Tony Douglas warned that they may never be reactivated.

For Douglas, the quad-engined gas-guzzling A380 was an extravagant expense that was hard to justify when the airline was trying to claw back from a mammoth $1.87 billion loss in 2016.

At the same time, Douglas was trying to improve Etihad’s sustainability credentials, focusing the airline’s future around the far more efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350. While it was popular with passengers, the A380 just didn’t fit into Douglas’ vision for the airline.

But with demand showing no sign of abating and a worldwide backlog of new airframes, it appears that Etihad is preparing to reactivate at least some of the A380 fleet.