China Southern Airlines sends A380 fleet into the desert

China Southern Airlines is the only airline not to have grounded its A380s during the crisis. Now the airline is quietly dismantling the small sub-fleet - the fate of the A380 is sealed.

The B-6138 may have completed its final flight. After a decade in service, China Southern Airlines parked the A380 at a boneyard in the Mojave Desert. B-6136 and B-6137, now registered as N291JT and N296IT with US fleet recycler Jet Midwest Group, have been waiting under the California sun since late February for their next assignment. The airline is silent on the subject. China Southern Airlines announced in February that “all the necessary contracts” for the fleet award had been signed. The last scheduled A380 flight was China Southern Airlines' flight to Los Angeles on November 6. Two of the airline's five A380s are still in China. The fleet was built between 2011 and 2013, as reported by the aviation portal Aero.