No A380s, But You Can Still Fly On A Four-Engine Jumbo Jet This Summer

The dream of many aviation enthusiasts is to fly a giant, graceful jumbo jet to a distant destination. To them, the journey is almost as important as the destination.

For me, sitting on the upper deck of a 747 operated by Northwest Airlines on a flight to Germany was about as close to space (or heaven) as I am likely to get. Northwest merged with Delta in 2010, but I have never forgotten that post-9/11 flight. By the same token, I have never flow on the 747’s giant rival, the elegant Airbus A380, but I’d like to someday.

Surprisingly, flying on a jumbo is a dream that can still be realized this summer despite the retirement of aging planes and the decimation of airline fleets by COVID-19.

But as of June 2020, your summer jumbo experience will not be on a Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane in the world. Aren’t there more than 200 of the 555-seat double-decker aircraft in service? Yess, at a dozen airines, but shockingly “All A380s are parked at present,” according to an Airbus spokesperson. The A380 whose first test flight was just 15 years ago, is a victim of both airline economics and the travel declines and quarantines created by COVID-19.

The good news is that A380 superjumbos will fly again, as restrictions ease and the plane can be flown at near-full capacity. Emirates, which operates nearly half of the world’s supply of A380 aircraft, said before the coronavirus pandemic that it would fly the type until 2035.

A380 aficionados can check the www.IflyA380.com website to see if any of the plane’s have resumed operations. And if you can’t find a flight, you can still buy a A380 model, coffee mug or T-shirt at the Airbus website.

But what if you are making your summer plans now, and want to fly a jumbo jet before all the four-engine giants bid farewell? Several world airlines are still flying the now half-century old Boeing 747, including routes to and from the United States.

When we checked with Boeing, their first question was “are you looking for operators that are currently using the 747 as a freighter, or operators that are currently flying with passengers on board?” While your packages can definitely hitch a ride aboard aircraft operated by AirBridge Cargo, UPS, Atlas Air, Silk Way Airlines, Cargolux, Nippon Cargo Airlines and more, major world airlines are still flying passengers on board their 747 aircraft..

According to Boeing, passenger airlines operating the 747 include:

·    Air Atlanta Icelandic (Iceland-based charter operator whose a customized Boeing 747-400 carried Iron Maiden’s 2016 world tour)

·    Air China

·    Air India

·    British Airways

·    Lufthansa

·    Rossiya Airlines (St. Petersberg, Russia)

·    Wamos Air (Madrid, Spain)

Not on the list Boeing sent us, but a continuing long-time operator of its 747 aircraft is Korean Airlines. KAL currently operates the Boeing 7478i.

Interestingly, a spokesperson told us that Lufthansa is not operating the A380 on any of their routes. The German airline is, however, “operating the Boeing 747-8, the next generation of the iconic jumbo, on flights from Frankfurt to Mexico City, Chicago and São Paulo.”

The list of 747 operators is ever-shortening. Boeing still had KLM on its list, probably because the airline had announced the plane’s retirement date as 2021. The coronavirus pandemic brought forward the retirement of KLM’s 747 fleet, with its last commercial flight reported on March 29. Virgin Atlantic, which had also slated its 747s for a 2021 retirement, abruptly announced their immediate end of service on May 5. United and Delta, the last two US airlines to operate the 747, each retired theirs at the end of 2017, long before the coronavirus reared its ugly head.

But why concentrate on who no longer flies the iconic 747, when eight carriers still do? Certainly, some are lesser known, while the schedule of others have been impacted by the flight slowdown and various national quarantines. You wanted adventure, didn’t you? With a little effort and a few dollars, you can defy the coronavirus and get on board the world’s longest passenger plane.