Return of the giant: The world’s biggest plane, the Airbus A380, is back in the game

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Airbus A380s from Air France, Etihad and Lufthansa were lined up, forced out of the sky by the harsh post-Covid economic reality: the double-deck “SuperJumbo” was a plane built for the good times. Billion-dollar meadow: cattle in the field adjacent to Tarbes Lourdes Pyrenees Air France actually began retiring its fleet of A380s before the Covid crisis. Because of its vast size, it generally weathers turbulence much better than smaller single-deck aircraft and therefore feels much smoother, including during landing and take-off – when you’d barely know you’ve left the ground. But the German airline plans to bring back the remaining giant jets in June to meet soaring demand; the remaining eight, says Lufthansa, are “currently parked in Spain and France for long-term so called deep storage” and will start to return in June on routes from Munich to Boston and New York.