Munich Airport's hangars not big enough for A380s but they have a creative solution
Published on Jun 06, 2025 at 10:03 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Jun 06, 2025 at 11:34 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
The hangars at Munich International Airport aren’t quite big enough to accommodate the super-sized Airbus A380s, so staff had to come up with a clever solution.
The German airport has been operating since 1992 and is the second busiest in the country.
Back in the early 1990s, when the airport was being built, Airbus had yet to launch its A380s, so the hangars weren’t designed to hold such a beast of a plane.
However, the airport has since developed a super smart solution to the problem.
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The Airbus A380 is the world’s largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-decker airliner in existence, although it can still be flown incredibly gracefully.
The whopper of an aircraft measures 238 feet long (73 meters), including its tail.
German airline Lufthansa has five Airbus A380s in its fleet, which are housed at Munich International Airport.
However, the planes are simply too large to fit neatly inside the hangar.
This meant that when maintenance work was being carried out on an Airbus at Munich Airport, the hangar gates had to be left open.
While this was fine during the spring and summer months, when the airport was hit by colder weather, the team working on the planes would be left exposed to the elements. Not ideal.
So, to keep the team warm and dry, officials at the airport commissioned some custom-made rail-mounted doors that allow the tail of the aircraft to poke through, while the rest of the plane and workers can remain inside.
When closed, the hole in the doors fits snugly around the plane and blocks out any chilly draughts.
See, we told you it was clever. It also looks pretty cool, too, as you can see in the clip above.
The doors were created by Butzbach and took just four weeks to make, an impressive feat considering they’re 72ft (22 meters) tall, 36ft (11 meters) wide, and weigh 20 tons.
A spokesperson from Munich International Airport confirmed that leaving the A380s’ tail exposed through the gap in the gates won’t cause any damage to the aircraft, because they are built to withstand temperatures as low as -76F (-60C) during flights.
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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
