Global Airlines On Lookout For More Airbus A380s

ISTANBUL—UK-based Global Airlines is actively looking at any Airbus A380s that come on the market as the long-haul startup plans to expand its network beyond transatlantic routes after it launches U.S. services.

“If you think about any of the A380s that are currently out there—either on the market, or with big question marks over them—we will be either already in conversations about them, or identifying the right way to have that conversation,” Global Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Richard Stephenson told delegates at Routes World in Istanbul.

Stephenson said 251 A380s have been produced and Global Airlines is “pretty clear on where most of them are.”

He declined to comment on the exact number of A380s that Global Airlines is seeking. “We are at various stages of conversations with different organizations,” Stephenson said. “When you acquire an aircraft, it doesn’t have to be done immediately. These things can take time. We’re looking at how we develop the fleet over the course of the next five to 10 years.”

Global Airlines has already signed contracts to buy four A380s. The first aircraft, which will be registered 9H-GLOBL, will be put on wet-lease provider Hi Fly’s Maltese air operator’s certificate (AOC) and ferried from the U.S. to Portugal “over the coming weeks” for refurbishment. Lisbon-headquartered Hi Fly, which is a former A380 operator, has been announced as Global Airlines’ technical partner.

“The longer-term plan will be to move to a UK AOC in the future for scheduled operations,” Stephenson said.

Global Airlines will launch scheduled services in the second half of 2024, with daily New York flights and four-times weekly Los Angeles frequencies. However, operations will not be limited to transatlantic services. Stephenson said Global Airlines is planning to have a “touch point” on every continent.

Stephenson acknowledged there has been a “healthy level of skepticism” over the Global Airlines project, but noted, “None of us are at all unclear about the level of challenge that exists in creating an airline.”

Global Airlines will be an all-A380 operator and Stephenson has no concerns about filling the aircraft. “You don’t have to take too much [transatlantic] market share to fill an A380,” he said.

The A380s will initially operate in two seating configurations. One version will have around 470 seats and the other will have around 450. They will be configured in a three-class layout, with first, business and economy cabins. Later aircraft will have the full Global product, which Stephenson showed an initial image of while on stage at Routes World.

“Nobody outside the team has ever seen this visual before. This is going to be one of our new business-class seats on our ‘version two’ aircraft. We’re going to have version one and version two aircraft. And we might see these in the sky in the next 18-24 months, potentially,” Stephenson said.

Each cabin will also have a “grazing” area, where passengers can help themselves to refreshments.