[Paleo Conservative]

Phantomworker sent me a link to this article.

[Paleo Conservative]

If you want on or off the aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.

[coconutt2000]

Airbus erred. They thought there was a market for super jumbo jets.

A few airlines agreed, for a while, but most are coming to realize that the growth markets aren't just in jumbo capacity, long haul routes. The expansion of short and medium haul routes, coupled with long haul capabilities gives Boeing the advantage of economy.

Buy a fleet of 787's and use them everywhere. Buy a fleet of A380s and you're stuck operating specific routes where the long haul market is large and consistent, which are quite few and heavily competitive. And the markets with short and medium haul needs aren't likely to have the airport facilities to handle the A380, nor are they likely to go to the expense of upgrading.

[phantomworker]

You made the first call to scrap the A380.

That might just happen!

[sully777]

Marketing 101: You do not produce a product and demand people buy it; you divine a demand and provide the product demanded.

[garyhope]

They also forgot to talk with me and lots of other air passengers.

Personally, I don't want to fly on a plane with another 554 people.

[JRios1968]

I think Airbus rolled the dice, expecting 7's, and is slowly realizing they are about to get snake eyes.

[Uriah_lost]

Of all the listed planes, the one I couldn't understand flopping is the 717. It really had the performance, features and capacity to be the RJ killer it was billed as. I knew the A380 was doomed by the death of the hub and spoke model that began with deregulation here in the US.

[gridlock]

The A380 problems are much bigger than a big plane. France, Europe, heck, everywhere, needs to look at this experience and learn from it. Many governments monkey around with their nations’ industries. Many allow strategic planning and forecasting to be corrupted by politics.

That's it in a nutshell, IMHO. The decision to build the largest passenger aircraft in the World was a political decision. The strategic planning and forecasting was fudged after the fact to support that decision. The engineering was an afterthought.