Six and a half years after being parked, Etihad Airways' final grounded Airbus A380 is back in the air. The double-decker jet, registered A6-APB, departed Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport in southwest France at 9:36 AM local time, slightly ahead of its 9:00 AM slot, and was tracking to land at Abu Dhabi International (AUH) around 6:14 PM — ahead of its 6:30 PM schedule. The route took it along southern France, over the Mediterranean, then across Egypt and Saudi Arabia to the UAE capital.

The jet's journey back has been a long one. It was first grounded at Abu Dhabi on 23 March 2020 as COVID-19 shut down global aviation, then ferried to Tarbes on 3 December 2020 for long-term storage. The French airfield, with its long runway and plenty of space, became the go-to parking spot for stored A380s. Flightradar24 data shows only two brief transponder activations in all that time — January 2024 and August 2026 — before today's ferry flight. Aviation enthusiasts tracked the return live.

A6-APB was the slowest of Etihad's superjumbos to be revived, and not every sibling made it. The airline once flew ten A380s; eight were reactivated earlier after demand rebounded and passengers asked for the aircraft back. The tenth, A6-APA, never flew again — sent to Tarbes in November 2020, it was scrapped in July 2025. That leaves nine A380s in Etihad's fleet, averaging 11 years old, older than most of the carrier's aircraft apart from its A320-200s and Boeing 777-300ERs.

For travellers, the return matters mostly if you're flying premium. The aircraft now carries 496 seats, up from 486 in the original 2015 layout. The lower deck is all economy, while the upper deck holds 70 business class and 11 first class seats. Two of those first class spots are in 'The Residence' — Etihad's famously extravagant three-room apartment at the front of the plane, complete with a double bed, a sofa for two, and a bathroom with a shower. More A380s in service means more chances to book it, plus the upper-deck business cabin that fans of the type rate highly.

If you've been waiting to try the A380 experience on Etihad's routes — London Heathrow and Paris are among the destinations it serves — the aircraft's availability is only improving as the full fleet returns.