Hi Fly A380 to be grounded indefinitely after the collision with a jet bridge

Paris - On September 7, the Hi Fly A380 (9H-MIP), which currently operates on behalf of French carrier Air Austral, has been grounded following a collision with a jet bridge at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The flight UU978 was expected to take off from Paris CDG airport for Reunion, Roland Garros International airport. However, one of the massive Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines struck a jet bridge while the aircraft was being towed.
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Although the incident caused a minor damage, the A380 has been grounded with flight cancellations (UU978 from CDG-RUN and UU979 from RUN-CDG). It is not yet clear when the Hi Fly's superjumbo will be operational again. Nor Hi Fly neither Air Austral did comment on the issue.

The A380 also came across some problems last month when it operated New York to London route for the low-cost Norwegian. In the first four days of service, the plane was minimum three and a half hours late both ways.

To fill the gap caused by the incident, Air Austral has pulled a Boeing 777-300ER from other routes.

Reunion-based airline leased the Airbus A380 from Portuguese wet-lease specialist Hi Fly to substitute its second Boeing 787-8, which has been taken out of service for three months from Aug. 24 for Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine examinations.

Hi Fly is the first wet-leasing company in the market to own and operate an A380.

The former Singapore Airlines A380 caught the industry’s attention when it was displayed at Farnborough Air Show this year in July with an ostentatious ‘Save the Coral Reefs’ livery as the first secondhand aircraft of the type.