South Korea’s Asiana Airlines flies empty A380 superjumbo, just to keep pilots certified

The empty Airbus A380 flew for three days so pilots could practice taking off and landing, until the airline could no longer afford to keep the jet skyborne

It is a problem faced by other carriers who don’t have training simulators and need their pilots to keep up their skills or lose their licenses

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An Asiana Airlines plane comes in for landing at San Francisco International Airport in 2013. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:45pm, 23 Jul 2020Updated: 3:45pm, 23 Jul 2020

Airlines are taking extreme measures to survive the coronavirus pandemic, with South Korea’s Asiana Airlines flying the world’s biggest commercial plane more than 20 times, going nowhere and carrying no passengers, just to keep trainee pilots certified.

Keeping their crews flight ready is one of the challenges carriers face as they grapple with the unprecedented crisis that has seen more than one-third of the world’s fleet grounded.

The empty Airbus A380 flew over South Korea for a few hours a day for three days in May to enable pilots of the 495-seat superjumbo to practice taking off and landing. The alternative – a trip to Thailand to use a simulator owned by Thai Airways International – was blocked because of travel bans, an Asiana spokesman said.

“Take-offs and landings of this plane cost a lot of money, and it’s money that needs to be used wisely, especially these days,” said Um Kyung-a, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities in Seoul. “Asiana is in a bind because it also can’t afford for its pilots to lose their licenses.”

Emirates Airlines has the world’s biggest fleet of A380s. Photo: AFP

Asiana had another 135 pilots who did not have enough flying time on its six A380s, but it could not afford to keep flying the empty jet. In the end, the country’s transport ministry extended the pilots’ flying credentials as a special exemption. All Nippon Airways, which operates two A380s, received a similar extension from Japan’s aviation authority.

Most of the big A380 operators, like Asiana’s rival Korean Air Lines, have their own simulators.