The GIANT is back!

It was in June 2008 that the Airbus A380-800 was delivered to Singapore Airlines. The national carrier of the city-state of Singapore was the very first airline in the world to operate the A380 on scheduled services in June 2007. It would later also be the first airline to retire the first A380. Our 9V-SKE is the airline’s third retired A380 to become an Aviationtag. Singapore Airlines currently still owns 19 aircraft of this model. The global corona pandemic meant that none of the super jumbos took to the skies in 2020, though. Seven were in storage in the desert of Alice Springs, Australia, whilst the rest were also grounded at their home airport of Singapore Changi. At the end of 2020, however, Singapore Airlines announced that it would be returning twelve of the 19 A380s to service. A short time later, they brought one aircraft home from Alice Springs, the rest of the grounded A380s remaining in the desert. Currently, there are just three airlines worldwide flying the Airbus A380 - Emirates, China Southern Airlines and Korean Air (as of July 2021). Back to our A380 9V-SKE: with 471 seats, the plane travelled halfway round the globe during its ten years of service - to Sydney, Mumbai, London and Paris, to name just a few destinations. After 7 years of taking to the skies, the aircraft was then reconfigured, leaving space for only 441 passengers - divided into first and business class as well as premium economy and economy.

9V-SKE was already removed from service in the autumn of 2018 and returned to its lessor, the German Dr. Peters Group. The aircraft was parked at Tarbes Lourdes Airport (LDE) until it recently started being recycled. The corona pandemic saw the market for used A380s collapse. The owner of the super jumbo, the Dr. Peters Group, still sees a need for spare parts in the future for the now dwindling number of four-engined jets still flying.

We are thrilled to now be able to tell another part of the unique story of the Airbus A380 with our Aviationtag.