Lufthansa Cuts Delhi Airbus A380 Flights During June 2024

Data has shown that Lufthansa has cut flights between Munich Airport (MUC), Germany, and Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) during June 2024, with the flights returning the following month. Simple Flying has approached the airline for a comment.

Temporary cut

According to Cirium’s schedules, the de facto German flag carrier will operate no Airbus A380 flights between MUC and DEL during the month. Instead, Lufthansa’s MUC hub will see the airline’s Airbus A380s taking off to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). In total, the company has scheduled 240 Airbus A380 flights between MUC and the four United States (US) airports, resulting in a total of 122,160 scheduled monthly seats.

Lufthansa’s booking system also showed that there are no Airbus A380s scheduled to fly from MUC to DEL during the month. Instead, Flight LH 762 between the two cities is scheduled to be operated by an Airbus A350-900. At the same time, customers are also offered the option to fly to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and board an Air India or Lufthansa flight to DEL or to go through Zurich Airport (ZRH) via Swiss International Air Lines to get to their destination in India. On July 1, 2024, Lufthansa switched the aircraft back to the Airbus A380, which is what data by Cirium also showcased.

Read more: Lufthansa Commits To More Airbus A380 Reactivations

During July 2024, Lufthansa has scheduled a total of 310 flights with the Airbus A380, with DEL returning to the list of destinations that the airline’s Airbus A380s fly to. As a result, the monthly scheduled seats from/to MUC with the double-decker should grow to 157,790. In comparison, the airline’s Airbus A380 schedule from/to MUC showed 126,232 seats in May 2024.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Lufthansa Airbus A380 destination list

However, Lufthansa should begin flying to IAD from June 1, 2024, possibly indicating that the airline could remove an A380 from its MUC to DEL route temporarily due to not having enough double-deckers back at its base, with the airline expecting more demand and/or higher yields from customers flying between MUC and IAD.

The German airline announced that its Airbus A380s would return to the skies in June 2022. At the time, Lufthansa said that it decided to do so because of a “steep rise in customer demand and the delayed delivery of ordered aircraft.” In total, Lufthansa is scheduled to bring back eight aircraft of the type, while prior to COVID-19, it operated 14 of them. Six of the quadjets have already been sold to Airbus, with Lufthansa having to reduce their value as the aircraft sustained damage that was not covered by insurance.

Photo: Chittapon Kaewkiriya | Shutterstock

On November 15, 2023, Lufthansa reactivated its fifth A380, flying D-AIMH from its long-term storage facility at Teruel Airport (TEV), Spain, to FRA. The previous Super Jumbo that the airline had restored, D-AIMC, flew from its long-term storage facility at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport (LDE), France, to FRA before flying to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) for maintenance on October 8, 2023, according to Flightradar24.

Read more: Lufthansa Pulls Another Airbus A380 Out Of Storage

Sources: Cirium, Flightradar24