2013 Airbus A380 for sale in Rolling Hills Estates, California

Actually, A380 consumes no less than 15000kg/h or Jet A1 fuel. The cost of this kerosene is much cheaper than standard gasoline, about 0.6EUR/kg in EU. This results in roughly 9000EUR/h. Fully loaded (and depending on other exceptional circumstances) this can go up to 13000EUR/h. (I have this insight from a retired pilot instructor)

Interesting - I'm curious what the hourly energy cost of Shinkansen is, in comparison.

I know that 6-8 seat jets are much cheaper, but what size do you have to go for to at least exceed the restroom in a public A320/737 based airline super cramped one? Not that I anticipate buying any jet, but I think that would be the threshold to be worth it to me if I ever was able to.

And unless you build and certify your own runway, there are few places in the world where you could store it for free.

340k for a Learjet? that seems too good to be true. what's the catch? I'm not familiar with this stuff. Looks like an early 70s model -- is that something you would need to gut to realistically use?

L-39 is a jet trainer, but you could use it for light combat roles (if you don't have any real combat aircraft).

What about if I duct tape some 3d printed wings to a 94 Hilux to make it look vaguely like a Wright brothers prototype?

What kind of nautical mileage would that net me?

> > A380 burns around 4,500 gallons of jet fuel an hour (on average-ish) so that's about $25,000/hour to operate in fuel alone.

Let's say you are a rich individual wanting to use this as a private jet:

1) Given that the plane will always fly empty compared to its capacity you could start by removing 2 engines and selling them to recoup some of the cost, or even all 4 of them and install 2 mid power engines .

2) Then you could just refuel in places where oil is cheap or heavily subsidised, say UAE or Saudi.

3) You could completely ignore the maintanence schedule and just jump out of it in your parachute if things go wrong

4) You could use it as a personal branding machine to propel your image as an anti-woke/pro-global-warming individual.

Considering all the above there might be somebody who could find it palatable, but they'd only be able to fly over oceans and within Africa

I don't think it’s that, D-AIMK is in the air right now. Also, they stupidly list the aircraft location as Rolling Hills Estates because the broker is based there. LAX is the only nearby airport that could handle an A380, but it’s a very poor place to store an A380 for sale.

Considering the N380D number is wrong (it's a 1969-made 2013-deregistered Beechcraft P-68), the photo is probably junk too. The seller may never even have been within a hundred nautical miles of the plane, and just grabbed random photos of the internet.

FWIW there are only 5 A380s registered in the USA [https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/MMSResult?St...], I see no indication for it being any of these though. Probably foreign-owned and just listed for sale in the US.

I don't think they painted it over. Looks like it is airbrushed in photopshop. Check out the top of the tail or the second door.

I have just flown one of those from Munich to Bangkok (Lufthansa). The pilots were so nice and even let me take a pic inside the cabin after we landed

Modern airliners are designed for a 30 year service life, this one is barely at ten years old, so it won't be airframe at end of lifespan.

One of the engines has only 800 cycles; the others are around the 3000 mark (so roughly 300 flights/year, which sounds about right for an A380: they service long-haul routes).

It might be a case of (3), with the added problem of there being a glut on the market due to the availability of newer, less maintenance-intensive wide-body twinjets with >400 seats these days (Boeing 777X, Airbus 350)?

An airframe and its engines typically have a rated life of 20,000 cycles. This plane has about 3,500. With proper maintenance however, airframes and some of their components can be used indefinitely. Engines will need to be rebuilt over time and engine parts replaced with new ones.

I think the price is low because the market for the plane is small, as is used serviceable material demand. (That’s when you strip a plane and sell its parts.)

Wikipedia's wisdom on the subject:

(tl;dr; version: The A380 was well-optimized for a future that didn't happen, but not for the one that did.)

"One reason that the A380 did not achieve commercial viability for Airbus has been attributed to its extremely large capacity being optimised for a hub-and-spoke system, which was projected by Airbus to be thriving when the programme was conceived. However, airlines underwent a fundamental transition to a point-to-point system, which gets customers to their destination in one flight instead of two or three. The massive scale of the A380 design was able to achieve a very low cost for passenger seat-distance, but efficiency within the hub-and-spoke paradigm was not able to overcome the efficiency of fewer flights required in the point-to-point system. Specifically, US based carriers had been using a multihub strategy, which only justified the need for a handful of VLAs (very large aircraft with more than 400 seats) such as the A380, and having too few VLAs meant that they could not achieve economy of scale to spread out the enormous fixed cost of the VLA support infrastructure.[141] Consequently, orders for VLAs slowed in the mid-2010s, as widebody twin jets now offer similar range and greater fuel efficiency, giving airlines more flexibility at a lower upfront cost.[142][143][144][145]"

It's more 3 than anything else. The used market for an A380 is non-existent. This thing is a white elephant.

A jet airplane is a hole in the sky that you shovel money into.

It depends on how much you operate it. They (used to) cost around $1.6m per month to lease. Airlines typically get around 14c per seat per mile in revenue, and would make a slight loss if it wasn't for their frequent flyer programs (a weird form of a bank). There is nothing more profitable than flying a full A380. There is nothing more loss making than flying a not full A380.

The costs to update the interior (eg ~450 new seats, in-flight entertainment, carpets, catering) is around $30m which is the same price as a new Boeing 737 (seating ~160) in bulk orders.

This aircraft is also due maintenance on most of its engines, and almost certainly a heavy maintenance (D check) where the aircraft is almost completely taken apart, inspected, and reassembled. A ballpark for this is $10-$15 million, done every ~6 years, and often combined with a cabin refresh.

The original owner was looking at a ~$50+ million bill for maintenance, cabin refresh, ongoing crew training and equipment, maintenance crews and spares, paying for the larger gates at various airports etc. It wasn't worth it to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_maintenance_checks

The maintenance is mostly based around reaching certain numbers of flying hours, so the costs are mostly based on how much you fly it, which also includes the high costs of fuel. Having a couple of A380 rated captains to call on isn't cheap either. Since making a profit per flight on an A380 is difficult on the vast majority of routes for the vast majority of airlines, that means it's basically spare parts.

Wouldn't cost anything to maintain as a garden ornament though

You need to have trained pilots to operate this. Investing in a simulator is a good idea, but you really need to give all your pilots at least an hour per month in this of flying time (the FAA might allow less but do you really want inexperienced pilots in control when you are on?), that is probably paid time since keeping certification. Note that is per pilot, This is often used for long flights where you need to switch pilots and let some sleep, plus you want pilots for when one is sick or on vacation. Figure you are paying 6 pilots to fly this thing - you can maybe find some willing to do this part time (still a good income for a pilot). You also need mechanics, since this is a rare airplane you cannot hope to contract with someone else when you need it (you can contract with someone else perhaps, but it needs to be a long term contract so they keep their mechanics trained)

Makes me think of when 3 crypto-bros bought a cruise ship: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/07/disastrous-voya...

No lowballers, no tirekickers. I know what I've got.

I assume the people in the market for an a380 already know what it looks like

Full overhauls on the set of engines would cost more than the aircraft....

(in fairness, the engines have plenty of cycles left but nobody wants A380s except for spares any more...)

The sorts of airlines that run or ran A380s are not the sorts of airlines that buy used aircraft.

If you have a used aircraft to sell, large or small, there's basically four places to sell it. First, someone told you "Hey if you ever want to sell that thing, let me know." Second, you post it on the bulletin board at your local airport. Third, you post it to controller.com. Fourth, you hire a broker who runs his contacts and also posts it to controller.com. The market isn't that large.

The A380 isn't a practical aircraft. Few airports can handle that beast. I mean, if I had all the money in the world, I would buy something much more practical, like an ACJ350.

They'll have marketed it to airlines and major part-out specialists already. The bored billionaire might offer them a better price, and the listing cost is negligible