In Tarbes, on the airport tarmac, an A380 bearing the "Global Airlines" logo has been parked for months. It is the first order placed by this emerging airline, which signed a check in May 2023, with plans for a commercial launch in spring 2024 for transatlantic flights. The airline is now back in the aviation news with the new date of its first flight scheduled for May 15, and the company will become the first to operate nothing but Airbus A380s in its fleet. Four aircraft are planned, connecting New York to London with scheduled flights.
To this day, the A380 remains the largest commercial aircraft in the world. Airbus produced the double-decker model until 2021, with a total of 251 units rolling off its assembly lines in Toulouse.
By launching such a service, Global Airlines will be competing with British Airways, which operates A380s from London Heathrow on flights to Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the United States, as well as Johannesburg in South Africa and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Airbus A380s to New York are operated by Emirates (from Dubai), Etihad Airways (from Abu Dhabi), and Lufthansa (from Munich and Frankfurt). However, not all of these airlines swear by the four-engine jet for their transatlantic flights.
"Nobody has started an airline by owning their own plane and owning the biggest plane in the world," boasted James Asquith, 36, the founder and CEO of Global Airlines, in an interview with The Independent in March. He acknowledged that he had "sold everything and risked everything to get where I am. I'm putting everything on the line." This is far from an easy adventure in 2025, at a time when low-cost airlines reign supreme, and the A380 has already shown itself to be less than economically viable for an airline, particularly in terms of its increased maintenance requirements. This problem has already caused Global Airlines a headache after ordering its second A380.
At launch, Global Airlines will not yet be an airline
In May 2024, the second aircraft purchased by Global Airlines left the desert-covered Mojave Airport in California, where it had been stored since its purchase from China Southern. Before it could operate it, the company had to conduct a series of tests and checks to validate its maintenance at the Prestwick site in the United Kingdom. A few weeks later, it flew to Dresden, Germany, not far from the Czech border, for more in-depth checks. Once these steps were completed, the aircraft took to the skies again, heading to Beja, Portugal, a popular storage facility for airline aircraft during the pandemic due to its dry, stable climate and low costs. The "SuperJumbo," as the A380 is nicknamed, has been there since January 17.
With its first flight on May 15, Global Airlines does not plan to launch scheduled flights, but rather charter flights, likely to raise its profile. The first will take off the A380 from Glasgow, Scotland. At that point, Global Airlines will not yet officially be an airline, as it will lack a valuable document: the Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) issued by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It will also need an operating license, which will require the company to demonstrate that it has sufficient funds to support its activity.
In the meantime, to fly its planes, Global Airlines can rely on a somewhat technical arrangement: going through Hi Fly, a Portuguese company that specializes in "wet leasing", in other words, the operation of aircraft with crew, maintenance, and insurance, on behalf of other airlines, but also tour operators and governments. In 2018, Hi Fly made a name for itself with the A380 by purchasing the first second-hand four-engine jet, which was notably used for repatriation missions during the health crisis in 2020. As for ticket sales, Global Airlines will go through TravelOpedia, which will provide them with ATOL (Air Travel Organizer's License) protection.
Source: The Independent
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