China’s borders reopening has come a little late for the biggest passenger airliner ever made. Scrap? Or spare parts? What fate awaits the last of the Super Jumbos to be flown by a Chinese airline? Today, it seems now impossible for the mighty Airbus 380 to ever return.
对于有史以来最大的客机来说，中国重新开放边境有点晚了。废料？或者备件？中国航空公司运营的最后一架超级巨型飞机将会面临怎样的命运？如今，强大的空客 380 似乎不可能再回归了。
Aviation enthusiasts from in and around Guangzhou gathered near the city’s Baiyun Airport runway on 21 December, to witness the departure of the last two China Southern Airlines’ A380 aircraft to retire. They were there to witness the historic moment whereby even the most populous nation on Earth can longer find a use for the Super Jumbo.
12月21日，来自广州及周边地区的航空爱好者聚集在白云机场跑道附近，见证南航最后两架退役A380飞机的起飞。他们在那里见证了这一历史性时刻，即使是地球上人口最多的国家也能再找到超级巨型飞机的用途。
The two aircraft flew from Guangzhou to the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, USA, where the remains of approximately 1,000 commercial aircraft are stored in the facility’s so-called “boneyard”.
两架飞机从广州飞往美国加利福尼亚州莫哈韦航空航天港，该设施的所谓“墓地”存放着约1000架商用飞机的残骸。
China Southern Airlines was one of the first 14 A380 users in the world, purchasing five A380s, numbered B-6136 to B-6140. In October 2011, the first of these was delivered, with its maiden flight being from Guangzhou to Beijing on 17 October.
中国南方航空是全球首批14家A380用户之一，购买了5架A380，编号为B-6136至B-6140。 2011 年 10 月，第一架飞机交付，并于 10 月 17 日首飞从广州飞往北京。
Ticket sales were very hot. Flying between China and North America, Europe and Australia, China Southern’s A380s were also heavily employed on the route between Guangzhou and Beijing. But it was not to last.
门票销售十分火爆。南航的A380飞机在中国与北美、欧洲和澳大利亚之间飞行，在广州和北京之间的航线上也大量使用。但这种情况并没有持续多久。
Beijing’s Daxing Airport was put into operation in September 2019, and China Southern Airlines chose to make it the new base for A380 flights. However, the Airport being far from the city centre and metro transfers expensive resulted in passengers choosing other options. It also forced China Southern’s hand in realising a sharp drop in ticket prices on the route that could only produce two return flights per day. The A380 was losing its usefulness.
北京大兴机场于2019年9月投入运营，南航选择将其作为A380航班的新基地。然而，机场距离市中心较远，且地铁交通昂贵，导致乘客选择了其他选择。这也迫使南航不得不在每天只能产生两个回程航班的航线上实现票价大幅下降。 A380 正在失去它的用处。
Therefore, rumours began spreading at the end of 2019 that China Southern may abandon the A380. We all know what happened next.
因此，2019年底，南航可能放弃A380的传言就开始流传。我们都知道接下来发生了什么。
The pandemic caused enormous damage to the global civil aviation industry, particularly on the kind of long-haul flights for which the A380 is most suited. Nevertheless, China Southern Airlines insisted on using the A380 during the pandemic and at one point was the only airline in the world to be doing so.
疫情对全球民航业造成了巨大损害，尤其是A380最适合的长途航班。尽管如此，南航在疫情期间坚持使用A380，并且一度是全球唯一一家这样做的航空公司。
Then, with the pandemic overseas under control, China Southern could only stand by and watch as airlines such as Emirates, Singapore and Lufthansa quickly resumed their A380 operations.
随后，随着海外疫情得到控制，南航只能袖手旁观，阿联酋航空、新加坡航空、汉莎航空等航空公司也迅速恢复了A380的运营。
Today, eight operators continue to fly the A380; ANA, British Airways, Emirates, Korean Airlines/Asiana, Lufthansa, Qantas, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. Together with China Southern; Air France, Malaysia Airlines, and Thai Airways International have all abandoned the aircraft type.
如今，仍有 8 家运营商继续驾驶 A380；全日空航空、英国航空、阿联酋航空、大韩航空/韩亚航空、汉莎航空、澳洲航空、卡塔尔航空和新加坡航空。与南航一起；法国航空、马来西亚航空和泰国国际航空均已放弃该机型。
According to industry insider, Ch-Aviation.com, there are at present 127 Airbus 380-800s flying scheduled passenger operations, while another 112 are in various states of storage. A total of 15 have been scrapped.
据业内人士Ch-Aviation.com称，目前有127架空客380-800执行定期客运航班，另有112架处于不同的存储状态。共有15艘被报废。
So the fate of the remaining A340s belonging to China Southern hangs in the balance. They could well be dismantled for spare parts for A380s still in service, but given their age and the quantity of other younger planes available for such, they may well end up on the scrap heap sooner than expected.
因此，南航剩余的 A340 飞机的命运悬而未决。它们很可能被拆解，为仍在服役的 A380 飞机提供备件，但考虑到它们的机龄和其他可用的较年轻飞机的数量，它们很可能会比预期更早地进入废品堆。
