Late last week, our custom alert for “A380s near Tarbes” pinged with an interesting movement. MSN 114, the 100th A380 built and formerly operated by Malaysia Airlines, turned its transponder on for the first time in nearly three years.
Why is it MSN 114, but only the 100th A380 built? Manufacturer serial numbers are assigned early in the production process and changes can result in aircraft being built out of sequence. For instance, the first A380 originally destined for FedEx was assigned MSN 037 before the airline canceled their order in 2006.
A380 MSN 114
MSN 114 first flew in late 2012 was delivered to Malaysia Airlines as 9M-MNF in March 2013. The aircraft flew with Malaysia Airlines until 2020 when the airline placed its entire fleet of six A380s into storage due to the pandemic. After trying to sell its A380 fleet from July 2021 onward, Malaysia was able to get Airbus to take the aircraft back as part of the airline’s purchase agreement for 20 A330-900neos.
9M-MNF departed Kuala Lumpur for storage in Tarbes, France on 19 December 2022. Now owned by Airbus Financial Services, MSN 114 remained in deep storage at the Tarmac Aerosave facility from December 2022 until September 2025.
Bringing MSN 114 back to life
On 25 September 2025, MSN 114, now wearing the registration 2-JAYN, turned its transponder on for the first time in nearly three years and performed a rejected take off, reaching a maximum speed of 107 knots. The following day, the A380 conducted a two hour, 55 minute long maintenance test flight, climbing up to 43,000 feet.
Now it gets interesting
On 1 October, MSN 114 was ferried to Abu Dhabi where Etihad Airways has a large A380 maintenance facility. Upon landing, the aircraft taxied to the Etihad Engineering area of the airport.
We’ve previously visited Etihad’s Abu Dhabi hangar to see how the airline maintains the world’s largest passenger aircraft. You can view that video below for a behind the scenes look at A380 heavy maintenance.
What’s next for this A380?
With the aircraft now in Abu Dhabi, presumably for additional maintenance, what happens next? Well, an absolutely massive amount of maintenance.
UPDATE: We asked Airbus about the plans for this aircraft and they tell us that after heavy maintenance it will go through even more modifications to serve as a future flight test aircraft for the manufacturer. Stay tuned for more information on exactly what modifications the aircraft will receive as well as when it will begin flying.
28 Responses
Maybe new route coming up . Maybe cargo conversion.
Cargo would be sooooo good
Yeah it would
Be sick
A380s don’t offer the possibility for a cargo conversion
If it’s Airbus themselves doing the modifications, I see no reason why it could not offer freight option in the future.
It’s their design, after all.
Plus fed ex did order them then cancelled
there is no a380f
Mate a wholesale purchase of spares
Possible new ownership
Maybe entering service with EK or EY
EY still have some of their own airframes in storage so they would not take another version with a different interior layoutEK is probably the best answer as they are now using nearly, if not all of their remaining airframes – not so long ago reactivating aircraft A6-EDF msn7 the oldest in regular use (yes I know, msn6 has been with HiFly and allegedly FlyGlobal, but iregularly)
Emirates in the market for buying 380’s for spares although if that was the case I would have expected the aircraft to have flown to Dubai.
Airbus is going to modify it to be a new flight test aircraft. It will be used for new engine testing such as the CFM Open Fan https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/future-aircraft/propulsion-systems
I doubt Etihad would add this A380 to it’s fleet as this particular example uses different engines, RR Trentham 900s as opposed to Etihad’s Engine Alliance.
it will probably enter Etihad 380 fleet
Glad Malaysia Airlines made the bald move by getting rid of these costly giants that were proven to be financially not very feasible.
This move was then followed by some other airlines as it marked the beginning of the end of A380, and sadly it will gradually phase out as times go by.
I believe airlines still flying this giant are struggling big time with loading capacity to make it break even, but due to pride or whatever they just refuse to want to look weak or showing sign of doing unwell to the world hence they pretend everything is working out perfectly.
As said in the article, the aircraft will serve as flight test aircraft for Airbus.
Maybe it would go into service of global airlines?
No Chnace Global Airlines is Like the worst A380 Operator
Why all this guessing? The article states it will ‘serve as a future flight test aircraft for the manufacturer’.
Hi Christopher, the answer came after initial publication of the piece. Thanks!
“go through even more modifications to serve as a future flight test aircraft for the manufacturer”
Aviation Week has had articles of Airbus using an A380 to test some hydrogen powerplants hanging on the side in the rear of the aircraft, similar to some of the engine manufacturers modified 747s.
And we may now have an answer as to which aircraft they’re gonna use…
I missed the article on the Boeing 757, 10/3 ?
Am finally getting more involved with Flightradar24 and enjoying.
THANKS to all of you who are responsible.
Saw the first one leave Renton field but missed the last one.
The article clearly states that the aircraft is going to be used by Airbus as a test machine, so why comment and speculate about it going to UAE or ETD?
Airforce One?
Test bed for new build A380’s?
I doubt Airbus will use it as a test aircraft, given that it will never be produced again. In fact, they could have completely overhauled it in Toulouse. Most likely, Malaysia Airlines will lease it or resell it to a new operator, although the day will come when we’ll stop seeing them flying. They are very expensive to maintain and consume a lot of fuel. For those who think it can be converted into a cargo plane, it’s technically unfeasible. The aircraft’s structure doesn’t allow for it, and Airbus itself has already ruled out that option in the past.
Interesting eh.
IMHO Airbus has regained ownership of the a/c and in order not to increase the burden of work and risk interruption of their ‘just in time’ maintenance and manufacturing program, they’ve possibly outsourced the engineering work to a trusted partner that has capacity in this regard.
Further, placing the asset on the Guernsey register (2-JAYN) whilst the work is undertaken makes sound ‘neutral’ and fiscal sense.
Just saying…… Interesting to see what does happen….. Same time Same Channel? 🙂