Lufthansa and Air France have no plans to return their A380s to the skies

It has been the biggest thing in our skies for years, but its fate has likely been sealed by the biggest economic crisis in decades.

Air France has announced the definitive end of its Airbus A380 operations, initially scheduled for the end of 2022, but brought forward due to COVID-19.

The airline has ten of the massive, two-storey aircraft, which cost around US$445 million each. Air France has been flying them for just 10 years - not long for a modern airliner.

Emirates A380 parked on the tarmac at Auckland International Airport.
Emirates A380 parked on the tarmac at Auckland International Airport. Photo credit: Dan Lake/Newshub.

The French airline's announcement came within hours of a similar announcement from fellow premium European airline Lufthansa.

German media reported the airline has already sent most of its eight A380s to a "scrapyard" and plans to halve its A380 operations immediately.

Qatar Airways has previously hinted its A380s may never return, while Emirates - which is by far the biggest user of the A380 with 115 of the aircraft - is looking to get out of an order it had placed with Airbus for even more of them.

Emirates declared: "the A380 is over".

Singapore Airlines has used the Airbus A380 as its flagship aircraft ever since it took delivery of the very first A380 off the manufacturing line in 2007. The airline is yet to comment on any changes being made to its international flee