Once, an Airbus A380 could have set you back about $445.6 million. Among the most expensive commercial aircraft ever built, the double-decker superjumbo promised to change the long-haul sector forever. But it was not meant to be, and by 2020, you may well have found yourself able to sell its landing gear alone for more than the remainder of the aircraft’s airframe.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the aviation sector hard in 2020. Populations were forced to lock down, non-essential travel became near-impossible across vast swathes of the globe, and the planes that would previously have been used for the purpose in many cases became problems rather than assets for airlines. Though we now have the benefit of hindsight and can appreciate the industry’s impressive bounce-back in the ensuing years, 2020 was tough for many and may well have seemed like the end of the world for airline executives. At least, it likely did for those who owned and operated A380s.

Fundamental Issues With A380 Program

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It is important to clarify that the A380 was already rapidly losing value before the pandemic. Smaller, more efficient twin-engine jets were well on their way to becoming all the rage, and so the A380 had, in many ways, begun to suffer against the test of time. When global aviation all but ground to a halt, the lack of flexibility provided by the A380 only ever meant it was going to be particularly badly affected.

The A380 was arguably hindered since it first flew commercially back in 2007. Having been flaunted as a flagship for airlines and successor to the Boeing 747 when first announced in the early nineties, the years, stretched by delays, before it finally made it into carriers’ fleets gave Boeing time to compete. Longer-range versions of the Boeing 777 saw the family become increasingly popular as time rolled on, while the more efficient Boeing 787 was also just around the corner.

So despite having initially fetched a list price, being the indicative value from Airbus, of $445.6 million, this was when expectations were for global aviation to become dominated by larger jets. Fears were that airports would become so congested by flights that aircraft would need to carry greater numbers. Instead, efficiency emerged as the priority for airlines.

A380’s Rapid Depreciation Pre-COVID

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Per The Economist, this meant that once the original set of A380s hit the age of 12, their price tags had far more than halved. Normally, one would expect an aircraft to be worth considerably less than its original value by that age, but the figures coming from appraisers were closer to $75 and $100 million.

This may sound shocking, given the list price of nearly $450 million from Airbus. In fact, it is in many ways, but it must also be noted that airlines rarely pay the list price after negotiations. Based on figures in The Economist, a brand-new flight-ready A380 would have set carriers back around $250 to $300 million. So while the depreciation may have been less stark for airlines than if they had indeed paid list price, they may have found their A380s to be worth as much as 75% less on the eve of the pandemic. This assumes they had bought for $300 million and could only sell for $75 million, so it works as an exceptionally rough estimate.

As mentioned, modern developments with the likes of the longer-range 777s and 787 only turned heads from the A380. Itself a fuel-hungry beast in comparison to the jets rolling off production lines today, “the technology on the A380 was basically from the 1980s,” Peter Morris, chief economist of aviation consultancy Ascend by Cirium, previously noted. “It was frozen into the design before the step-change in aircraft technology – before carbon composites and highly efficient engines.” It only takes a look at Airbus’ 2019 earnings to see that the A380 program had fallen short of expectations even before the pandemic struck. Just eight of the aircraft were delivered over the year, while annual losses relating to the program stood at €202 million ($219 million).

Pandemic-Induced Groundings And Retirements

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Dwindling demand meant that the A380’s end was actually declared before COVID-19 was even in the everyday vocabulary. Upon the cancellation of 39 orders from its largest A380 customer Emirates in February 2019, Airbus broke the news that production would be wound down. This ultimately saw the UAE flag carrier receive the final of the 251 models ever built in late 2021.

The years between proved exceedingly tough for those with A380s on their books, though, as the pandemic brought with it lockdowns and travel restrictions. Where existing models of the aircraft had already faced rapid depreciation, a sudden lack of passengers to carry meant market prices were now all but through the floor.

A380 specifications:

By March 2020, lessor Doric Nimrod had lost a combined $226.5 million on just four A380s delivered to Emirates since 2013. Separately, Qantas took a $1.4 billion write-down on the value of its fleet, including its 12 A380s, as these were sent into deep storage to potentially never see service again. Lufthansa similarly placed eight of its A380’s in the Teruel graveyard in Spain to leave the option of reactivating them in years to come if ever needed. Its other six A380s were returned to Airbus in the meantime.

Only Useful For Reusable Parts?

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The big question that suddenly dawned on owners and operators alike was whether the A380 would actually ever be needed again. It could not be converted to a freighter in any meaningful sense, and COVID-19 stripped demand down to its bare bones. Almost overnight, there was simply no need for large aircraft that could carry so many people.

This meant what one did next in regard to their A380s was essentially a gamble. According to analysts of investment bank Jefferies, residual values of those owned by lessors had stooped to as low as $10 to $15 million. What they now had was an almost worthless airframe, alongside potentially reusable but undesirable engines and landing gear that may fetch at least something.

Airlines might not be blamed for having looked to ditch the A380s within their ranks as a result. However, for those who avoided hastily selling or scrapping the aircraft, the gamble appeared to reap its rewards as lockdowns eased, and the world opened itself back up to travel. As Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr put it last year: “I very much remember the day we took that decision. We took a bet, and we bet the right way.”

Back From The Brink Post-COVID

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At the time, COVID appeared to have delivered the final nail in the coffin for the A380. What already seemed to be an increasingly unviable option for airlines had suddenly become a burden for anyone who held it. But there has been a twist in the A380’s story most recently.

Global aviation made a serious comeback in the wake of the pandemic. One which, in fairness to airlines, was probably difficult to predict or even fathom when lockdowns were in place across the world. Per Our World In Data, global air passenger kilometers shot past 2019 levels as early as 2024. This resurgence in demand, coupled with struggles across aircraft manufacturing supply chains leftover from the pandemic, has given the likes of the A380 a new lease of life.

In the case of Lufthansa, a need to plug gaps in its fleet due to delays in the delivery of new aircraft has deemed its once obsolete A380s now invaluable. “As you know, we are short of widebodies,” Spohr added last February. “We are short of 41 Boeing aircraft alone, and if we didn’t have the eight A380s, we would face huge problems in serving our premium markets.”

A380 Enjoys Rebound In Value

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All this means that the A380 has recovered from being all-but worthless, to once again become an aircraft worthy of remaining in fleets. British Airways, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Etihad Airways – the list of those still flying A380s today goes on. Such operators will likely have to keep their A380s airworthy for years to come too, or at least while the Boeing 777X is unapproved and production of the likes of the Airbus A350 remains confined by bottlenecks.

COVID-19 worked to make the A380 obsolete, but then relevant again in that sense. Factory closures are among a list of reasons why manufacturers are struggling to deal with a backlog in orders now, and why airlines have been forced to keep aging jets in the sky for longer. For Emirates, this meant the option of buying 29 of its A380s as their leases expired over the last financial year appeared too good to pass up. These fell under a $4.9 billion (AED 17.9 billion) investment in “new aircraft, facilities, equipment, and the latest technologies,” so their values are difficult to gauge. However, we know Emirates spent roughly $180 million on four A380 airframes in June 2025, translating to around $45 million each. Not bad for something worth next to nothing just a few years ago!