In Pictures: Airbus A380 superjumbos to the rescue as travel demand bounces back

Written off as an over-sized anachronism when Covid-19 upended aviation, the world's largest passenger plane is enjoying an unlikely revival to handle an overwhelming rebound in air travel.

Many airlines struggled to see a future for their A380s when the pandemic grounded fleets in early 2020. Qantas parked its 12 double-deckers in the Californian desert, saying they wouldn't be needed for at least three years, while Etihad said it's not clear if its 10 superjumbos will ever fly again.

But this year's sudden travel recovery has given the cavernous jets - often seating more than 500 people - a new lease of life.

They have become the long-range jumbo of choice for airlines from the UK to the Gulf and Australia as passenger volumes stretch aviation workforces that were depleted during the crisis.

By the end of 2022, monthly A380 flights will be almost 60 per cent of pre-Covid totals, Cirium data shows, defying the jet's doubters. British Airways will operate more A380 flights by the end of the year than it did before Covid-19.

As international travel returns, the A380's carrying ability is validating - at least for now - the massive bet by its No. 1 buyer Emirates Group of Dubai and proving useful for carriers such as Qantas that didn't permanently turn their backs on the giant plane. Emirates says on its website that it currently has 118 A380s in its fleet.

Emirates is now retrofitting many of these jets with premium-economy seats, a class that's proving popular with leisure travelers with money to burn as the pandemic fades. The airline’s president Tim Clark had said in April that the carrier would spend $1.5 billion for the programme. The airline put tickets for its premium economy seats on sale from June 1 on routes to London, Paris and Sydney.

This month, there are almost 4,000 scheduled services using the A380, and about 6,000 planned for January 2023, according to Cirium. Superjumbo services at Singapore Airlines Ltd, which turned one of the jets into a restaurant during the pandemic, will be almost back to normal by the end of 2022, the data show.

The superjumbo - seen as heralding a luxurious new chapter for aviation with its onboard bars and whisper-quiet interior when it was introduced in 2005 - was already falling out of favor before the pandemic hit, as airlines turned to smaller, more fuel-efficient planes. Airbus killed off the programme in 2019.

The A380 made its first flight in 2005 and won over passengers with its audacious scale - its wingspan is wider than a soccer pitch. Ultimately, though, airlines were turned off by its high operating costs.

Airbus sold just 251 of the planes and the last delivery, to Emirates, was made in November 2021. The aircraft remains a polarising force. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker has described the A380 as the airline's "biggest mistake".