Airliners-India

747-237

Hi Fly Malta to end A380 operations

05.11.2020

Hi Fly Malta has announced it will retire its only A380-800 later this year and will replace it with a more marketable A330 twinjet.

"The decision to not extend the initial agreed lease period came as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, that drastically reduced the demand for very large aircraft," the airline said.

9H-MIP (msn 6) was retired by Singapore Airlines in November 2017 and added by Hi Fly Malta in mid-2018. The 14-year-old Airbus aircraft is owned by Doric Asset Finance and was the world's only A380 available for wet-lease or charter. However, the airline has struggled to find placements for the aircraft this year, only deploying it on single ad-hoc charters. In July 2020, the airline removed most of the seats from the aircraft and proferred it to the market for cargo-only flights.

According to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, the quadjet was parked at Kuala Lumpur Int'l between October 7 and October 23, after operating a charter flight from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, and was subsequently ferried back to Beja, where it now remains.

In terms of A330s, the platform of choice for further growth, Hi Fly Malta operates four A330-300s and one A330-900, while its parent Hi Fly operates one A330-200 and one A330-900.

Hi Fly's decision to retire its A380 coupled with other carriers' plans to discontinue using the type, mean the A380 formally remains in service with 12 carriers, of which only two - Emirates and China Southern Airlines - currently use them for scheduled commercial flights, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows.
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747-237 · Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:12 am Post subject:

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/98480-hi-fly-malta-ends-a380-operations

Hi Fly Malta ends A380 operations

17.12.2020

Hi Fly Malta (HFM, Malta Int'l) completed the previously announced retirement of its only A380-800, 9H-MIP (msn 6), on December 15, 2020.

The Airbus quadjet operated its last ever commercial services between December 9 and December 15, ferrying medical supplies from Seoul Incheon and Shanghai Pudong to Hamburg Helmut Schmidt. On December 15, the aircraft was repositioned from the German airport to Berau, the base of Hi Fly Malta's parent Hi Fly (5K, Beja). It will be ferried for part-out on December 17, 2020.

The 14.1-year-old aircraft was initially delivered to Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi). The ch-aviation fleets history module shows that it was retired by the Singaporean carrier in November 2017 and subsequently added by Hi Fly in July 2018. It was the world's only A380-800 active in the second-hand market. The Maltese ACMI/charter specialist initially operated the quadjet for passenger charters (including briefly for Norwegian due to the B787s' Rolls-Royce Trent engine issues) before removing the passenger seats and converting it to a makeshift freighter during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite the conversion and a spike in demand for cargo, the aircraft only sporadically operated cargo flights.

Following the retirement of Hi Fly Malta's A380, the number of operators of the type across the world has now dropped to 12. More than half of all A380s are operated by Emirates (EK, Dubai Int'l), which is also the only airline that actively uses a significant number of the quadjets on its scheduled flights. China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou) and Korean Air (KE, Seoul Incheon) deploy a very limited number of their A380s, while the remaining nine operators have parked their entire A380 fleets.
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