Malaysia to sell it's 6 A380s

Fabio

More news to compound the talk of the death of the extra-large long hauler (A380 and 747). Malaysia, from what I read, are doing it to try and claw back on losses it has been making for a while but what I don't understand is...who will they sell them to? There's no queue at Airbus HQ for new ones at the moment. Then again maybe they don't mind about how much they get and simply want to divest themselves of the high operating costs...

http://www.ausbt.com.au/malaysia-airlines-puts-its-entire-airbus-a380-fleet-up-for-sale

coylemj

With the recent reshuffle in the Saudi royal family, maybe the recently promoted crown prince will buy a few to keep up with his (recently demoted) uncles?

ozzy jr

Turkish were rumoured to be interested in leasing a couple from Malaysia a few months ago.

Be interesting to see if there's any market for second hand A380's as there's not much interest in the new ones.

smurfjed

With the recent reshuffle in the Saudi royal family, maybe the recently promoted crown prince will buy a few to keep up with his (recently demoted) uncles?

Neither of his uncles have aircraft, so this doesn't make sense And even the 380 purchased by Prince Waleed has never entered service, nor is it expected to.

BonkeyDonker

Could be an interesting prospect for an airline who wants to try the A380, but have a borderline business case for it. Removing a potentially large cost from the equation may make it a worthwhile venture.

They would look great with a Shamrock on the tail

scudzilla

smurfjed wrote: »

Neither of his uncles have aircraft, so this doesn't make sense And even the 380 purchased by Prince Waleed has never entered service, nor is it expected to.

let me get this straight, he bought a 380 and never used it?

andy_g

scudzilla wrote: »

let me get this straight, he bought a 380 and never used it?

Something about it being over weight.

Hmmm Ryanair *cough cough*

Obvious decision for Malaysian.

Interesting, will Airbus buy them back to lease them out, will Turkish consider them? Or will they end up like many 4 hole Airbus unsellable?

Zonda999

Its a shame, but Malaysian have been losing money for years, even before its recent misfortunes.

I wonder who'd be interested in these frames, all under 3 years old. Turkish have been mentioned. Would also think that maybe the likes of China Airlines or TAM may be interested

Tenger

Deleted User wrote: »

Obvious decision for Malaysian.

Indeed. I sense the hand of Christoph Mueller in this. When he joined EI he very quickly disposed of any unnecessary deadweight in an operational sense, routes were ended and consolidation on profit making routes was the order of the day.
If the 6 A380's were not being filled and/or were causing a problem for overall fleet commonality then they have no place in his masterplan.

Seats not being filled and causing huge losses running them, thankfully get rid of that poor livery as well. Like you said Tenger if they're not paying their way they have to go.

Contraction and expansion as many have done before them. The A380 is a very niche market aircraft, you have to be guaranteed to fill them to pay for them if you can't do that you don't get them.

I suspect we will see them in Turkish colours at some stage. Good opportunity for Turkish to get them and probably at very good prices too.

conor_ie

I'm due to fly on an a380.. hopefully won't be sold by then!

smurfjed

let me get this straight, he bought a 380 and never used it?

Buying it is the cheap part, outfitting it is extremely expensive. He got it prior to the stock market crash and it is rumoured that he sold it to raise cash. The new owner has no interest in outfitting it. That particular aircraft was a test aircraft so it has modifications that make it extremely heavy, therefore airlines aren't interested in it.

PukkaStukka

Obviously this potential disposal of the A380's is a business decision taken by Herr Mueller?