Industry Airbus and British Airways in talks about additional A380?

According to Bloomberg, Airbus is in talks with UK carrier British Airways to sell additional Airbus A380 aircraft.

Months ago, British Airways has confirmed plans to add six to eight second-hand A380 to its fleet. Currently, the carrier operates a fleet of twelve A380 on flights from its hub in London Heathrow to several US destinations, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Singapore. The first aircraft was delivered in 2013. Each A380 ins configured with 469 seats, 14 in first class, 97 in business class, 55 in premium economy and 303 in economy.

British Airways is the largest operator of the Boeing 747-400 which are scheduled to be retired by 2024. New A380 could be used to replace the aging Jumbo jets. The larger capacity of the A380, compared to the Boeing 747 could be interesting for British Airways as London Heathrow is running close to its capacity limit and larger jets could be a solution for the limited number of available slots at the airport.

The former plan to buy second-hand A380 for the entire IAG Group (British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling) seems to be no option any longer. Singapore Airlines has begun to retire the first of its early A380’s. The airline received some of the first A380 in 2007. The jets are not very interesting for the second-hand market due to its higher weight compared to later A380’s.

British Airways could be the second airline ordering new A380 in 2018 after the largest A380 operator Emirates has placed an order for 36 aircraft last week. Airbus stated the new order guarantees the production of the A380 for the next years.