Retired Aircraft
Retired Aircraft

COVID-19: A List of Retired Aircraft

Catarina Madureira·
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The low demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced all airlines to resize their fleet and flight operations. With this some airlines sent their aircraft to storage sites and some straight into retirement. Here we have collected a list of retired aircraft to share with you.

Lufthansa

At the beginning of April, Lufthansa Group announced the first measures for reducing the fleet due to the lower demand caused by COVID-19.

The A340-600 fleet will be temporarily decommissioned as well as six Airbus A380s and five Boeing 747-400s. Lufthansa Cityline will also withdraw three Airbus A340-300 aircraft from service.

Lufthansa’s CEO, Carsten Spohr, announced that after COVID-19 the airline will be smaller and will reduce the size of the fleet by about 100 aircraft.

In the short-haul segment, operated by Eurowings, an additional ten Airbus A320s are planned to be phased out.

Lufthansa Group Downsize Fleet And Plan Restructure

KLM

Last month KLM retired their entire fleet of Boeing 747-400s. Initially the airline was expecting to retire this type of aircraft in 2021, but due to COVID-19 the retirement was brought forward without much notice.

Currently, three KLM 747-400Ms (PH-BFT, PH-BFV and PH-BFW) are continuing to fly to Shanghai as cargo flights only.

KLM B747-400
KLM B747-400

Air France

During an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune, Air France CEO Ben Smith confirmed that he is anticipating the exit of the Airbus A380 fleet.

The first A380 left the fleet in January, performing its last flight to Ireland to be dismantled. Since then Air France have sent two A380s to Tarbes Airport in France and another two to Teruel, Spain.

a group of airplanes on a runway
Air France A380

Virgin Atlantic

This week, Virgin Atlantic announced the immediate retirement of all their B747-400 and four A330-200 aircraft.

Virgin Atlantic B747-400
Virgin Atlantic B747-400

On March 24th the airline retired their last A340-600 (G-VWIN). The last three aircraft flew to Bournemouth Airport and two of them, G-VNAP and G-VWIN, already have a new owner, Maleth-Aero.

IAG Group

IAG Group, the parent of British Airways and Iberia, announced the potential early retirement of BA B747s and Iberia’s A340s.

American Airlines

American has officially retired the Embraer E190, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 fleets, which were originally scheduled to retire by the end of 2020. The airline has also accelerated the retirement of their Airbus A330-300s. Additionally, American is retiring 19 Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft, operated by PSA Airlines.

American Airlines B757-200
American Airlines B757-200
American Airlines B767-300
American Airlines B767-300

Delta

Delta will retire the MD-88 and MD-90 aircraft earlier than previously planned, with both aircraft types exiting the fleet effective June 2020.

“We’re making strategic, cost-effective changes to our fleet to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic while also ensuring Delta is well-positioned for the recovery on the backside of the crisis,”

said Gil West, Delta’s Chief Operating Officer

Delta Air Lines also announced that it will retire its 18 widebody Boeing 777-200 by the end of 2020. The airline will continue flying its fleet of long-haul next-generation Airbus A350-900s, which burn 21% less fuel per seat than the 777s they will replace.

“The 777 has been a reliable part of Delta’s success since it joined the fleet in 1999 and because of its unique operating characteristics, opened new non-stop, ultra-long-haul markets that only it could fly at that time.”

said Gil West, Delta’s Chief Operating Officer
Delta MD-90 - Jay Bowie
Delta MD-90 – Jay Bowie

Air Canada

Air Canada is accelerating the retirement of 79 older aircraft from their fleet, including Boeing 767, Airbus 319 and Embraer 190 aircraft, with the Embraer aircraft exiting the fleet immediately.

Air Canada B767-300
Air Canada B767-300

Air Transat

At the end of March, Air Transat retired their last A310 with registration C-GSAT. Air Transat repatriation flight TS765 from Porto, Portugal arrived in Toronto via Halifax on 30th March.

The last flight was scheduled for the 27th of April from Quebec to Paris and back.

Austrian

Last month, Austrian Airlines announced, in a statement, that they will start the phase-out of part of the fleet; including the retirement of all seven A319s and three of six B767-300s until 2022, then the rest of the Dash 8 fleet.

Austrian Airlines Plans for 20% Less Capacity Post-Coronavirus

Singapore Airlines

According to RoutesOnline, Singapore Airlines will be pushing forward the retirement of their B777-200/ER. A few of them are now parked in Alice Springs, NT, Australia.

Singapore Airlines B777-200/ER
Singapore Airlines B777-200/ER
COVID-19: Unusual Aircraft Storage Sites

Any Other Retired Aircraft?

Do you know of any other retired aircraft? Feel free to share with me in the comments below.

Catarina Madureira

Catarina was born in Lisbon, Portugal. Since childhood, she became an aviation enthusiast. 3 years ago, she became interested in aviation photography. Catarina graduated with Mechanical Engineering and is now a CAMO - Continuous Airworthiness Maintenance Organisation engineer.

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19 Responses

  1. Virgin Atlantic announced the retirement of Boeing 744/Airbus a332 last year instead of this week (It was published 05/05/2020) but otherwise thanks for this great article!

    Reply

  2. Cathay had already retired their 777-200/ER’s but I’m anticipating the retirement of Cathay’s 777-300 non-ER variants

    Reply

  3. I’m pretty sure Etihad wants to retire it’s A380s, but I’ve never been on the residence first class and a lot of other people probably haven’t either.
    Though, the A380 does have operating costs of $26,000 to $28,000 per hour, which is more than it would currently earn in a whole flight. The A380, A340 and 747 will be pretty much gone by the time Covid 19 finishes.

    Reply

  5. It a bit sad to hear, but that’s the time for P2F conversions to support the high cargo demand.
    The 767s, the 747s and soon also the 777s are the best candidates for that.

    Reply

  7. And what will happen to the retired airplanes, will some companies reuse them again after COVID-19 pandemic.

    Reply

  8. KLM is indeed operating 3 x 747 Combi , but not only to Shanghai but also to Beijing. Flights are operated via Seoul due to crew reasons.

    Reply

  9. Hi my name is Sukhvinder Chatha I flew on Lufthansa A380 from New Delhi To Frankfurt I can say that the experience was great so far it well be sad to see the Airbus A380 leaving the Lufthansa fleet 6 have been retired 8 are in service right routes are unknown at this time where they well fly them to The Boeing 747-400 is another big aircraft Lufthansa have retired 5 of there Boeing 747-400s and only 8 are in service the same where they will fly to is unknown.

    Reply

  10. TRAGIC !!

    Personally i hope alot of the A380’s being ‘mothballed’ will return on routes as for long haul = Comfort! Even B777’s and A350’s may be replaced by awful single row bodies on routes,what a thought of sheer hell !!!!!!!!!! that will certainly effect demand ,as who would want to fly on them for 10 hours etc.Especially economy! I do not and you may still have to book a single row to yourself yet as nobody really knows what they are going to do about social distancing!Only the rich will be able to fly it seems to me if they go down that path!

    What is really ‘shocking me’ is the idea that the real winner out of all of this could be this aircraft >> A321 XLR !!!!!! Why?? Ideal for airlines going back online with limited demand and this plane is capable in Nautical miles going from main hub to hub according to airbus own map! This ,maybe has boosted Airbus sales in the longterm down the line for this aircraft and destroyed the opportunity for Boeing to get its act together with a B797 Competitor! I really hope in the long term the big ones return as flying all over the place in small domestic styled aircraft ,re-engineer’ed for long-haul is just such a PUT_OFF! Seriously this could the plane of choice for many airlines and routes ,for a many years!

    Looks like airlines are rapidly eyeing up aircraft on lease from failed airlines and airlines gone bust that have the type A321 XL or XLR to buy or lease as panicking of demand predictions is increasing nearer the easing of lockdowns around the world! Survival of the fit’est by 2021 i wonder,who will be left and still around??

    Looks and i hope not ,bad for the consumer for choice and comfort! More like get what you can and lump it for what you can afford! Luxury is blown out of the water i think for sometime ,will be interesting to see if the cheap airlines recover quicker than the real players? Will they replace all the proper jobs? It will certainly be a war zone over prices and lure deals!

    Reply

  11. I flew on Virgin Atlantic’s Sleeping Beauty Rejuvenated (G-VNAP) back in November from London to New York. It was an amazing flight. GVNAP will be missed.

    Reply

  12. Any word on Delta switching out A300-300 flying from Atlanta to Europe with A350s? I had read this was to happen June 2020.
    Thanks.

    Reply

  14. The 2nd French airline, Corsair international, has retired all his 747-400 (x03) because of the covid19. I work for this airline and it’s so sad for us !!

    Reply

  16. Well…Southwest Airlines…you know, the biggest domestic carrier in the US? I think they have dumped some, too, but don’t know specifics. BUT…if it is only aircraft TYPES, then SWA hasn’t stopped anything – as they only fly several versions of the B-737, the most popular airframe on the planet.

    Reply

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