Posted on 02/13/2019 10:23:11 PM PST by BenLurkin
The European plane maker said Thursday that it will stop delivering A380s in 2021 after Dubai-based airline Emirates slashed its orders for the huge jetliner.
The A380, the world's largest airliner, first took to the skies 14 years ago. But Airbus' giant bet that airlines would need lots of extra-big planes to fly passengers between major airport hubs didn't pay off as the company had hoped.
The company has delivered 234 of the superjumbos to date, less than a quarter of the 1,200 it predicted it would sell when it first introduced the double-decker aircraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Isn’t this the aircraft that forced airports to modify ramp operations due to the aircraft’s size?
In the mean time Boeing has delivered over three times as many 787s.
After all that taxpayer money in subsidies, the Air Pig turns out to be a giant flop. A normal company would be driven into or at least very close to bankruptcy by such a fiasco - but Airbus will simply scream for more subsidies and will get them from Yurps desperate to feel relevant in high tech.
What are the criteria for an aircraft to appear on that chart? Thanks.
In all my years of flying, I never got to fly on a 747, darn it.
Me too. I never got to fly on a 747, despite logging a ton of miles-—but all domestic.
Yeah, driving along 27 in the vicinity of JFK can have you ducking when one of those is coming in for a landing. Hard to take your eyes off of it.
Take it up with these guys:
In the last study, the A380 had lower seat mile cost than 777-300ER but was beaten by the 777-9.
https://leehamnews.com/2017/01/23/22074/
They would be better served getting a drone type car vehicle released. There are a couple companies that appear to have a viable model nearly ready for commercialization. If the govt gets out of the way.
Fly Emirates if you ever get a chance.
Notice Fedex is NOT on the list, even though they built a hangar for it in Memphis. Now they use it for 777’s.
The fact you needed to build out larger runways and specialized terminals just to support it, was flaw one....
Overestimating route demand for super long routes was failure number 2.
Airbus took a risk, and lost.
Not only specialized terminals, but if memory serves, needed longer and stronger runways as well... putting most of the existing infrastructure for passenger travel unserviceable by this behemoth.
Seat per mile cost doesn’t win in very scenario... This whale will win on SUPER LONG ROUTES between 2 airports that have the capacity to support the beast, but few airports have that ability, leaving this as a NICHE airplane, only viable between limited locations with HIGH DEMAND for the route...
In other words.... the things has been largely a dog.
That should tell you all you need to know, if FEDEX can’t make this beast work, its a fail.
Neither has this aviation buff.
Now I have to dream of - and not achieve, if history is any judge - flying on a 787.
Cheers,
Jim
Airbus A380 - from European dream to white elephantLoved by passengers, feared by accountants, the world's largest airliner has run out of runway after Airbus decided to close A380 production after 12 years in service due to weak sales.
The decision to halt production of the A380 superjumbo is the final act in one of Europe's greatest industrial adventures and reflects a dearth of orders by airline bosses unwilling to back Airbus's vision of huge jets to combat airport congestion.
Air traffic is growing at a near-record pace but this has mainly generated demand for twin-engined jets nimble enough to fly directly to where people want to travel, rather than bulky four-engined jets forcing passengers to change at hub airports.
And while loyal supporters like top customer Emirates say the popular 544-seat jet makes money when full, each unsold seat potentially burns a hole in airline finances because of the fuel needed to keep the huge double-decker structure aloft.
"It's an aircraft that frightens airline CFOs; the risk of failing to sell so many seats is just too high," said a senior aerospace industry source familiar with the programme.
Once hailed as the industrial counterpart to Europe's single currency, the demise of a globally recognised European symbol coincides with growing political strains between Britain, France, Germany and Spain where the plane is built.
That's in stark contrast to the display of European unity and optimism when the engineering behemoth was unveiled in front of European leaders under a spectacular light show in 2005.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the A380 a "symbol of economic strength" while Spanish premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called the rollout "the realisation of a dream".
Passengers marvelled at the European giant with room for 70 cars on its wings, looking rather like the hump-backed Boeing 747 but with the top section stretching all the way to the back.
Airlines had initially rushed to place orders, expecting it to lower operating costs and boost profits as the industry crawled out of a slowdown in tourism since September 2001.
Airbus boasted it would sell 700-750 A380s, which nowadays cost $446 million at list prices, and render the 747 obsolete.
In fact, A380 orders barely crossed the 300 threshold and the 747 has outlived its rival, after reaching the age of 50 this week.
FALL FROM GRACE
The seeds of the A380's fall from grace were already present behind the scenes of the 2005 launch party, insiders say.
Despite public talk of unity, the huge task was about to expose fractures in Franco-German co-operation that sparked an industrial meltdown. When the delayed jet finally reached the market in 2007, the global financial crisis was starting to bite. Scale and opulence were no longer wanted. Sales slowed.
At the same time, engine makers who had promised Airbus a decade of unbeatable efficiencies with their new superjumbo engines were fine-tuning even more efficient designs for the next generation of dual-engined planes, competing with the A380.
Finally, a restless Airbus board started demanding a return and stronger prices just when the plane desperately needed an aggressive relaunch and fresh investment, insiders said.
"It was a triple whammy," said a person close to the debate.
As demand see-sawed, so did the plane's marketing: starting with luxuries including showers, then vaunting its green credentials with the messianic slogan 'Saving The Planet One A380 at a Time" before joining the race to squeeze in more people and cut costs.
Yet despite its own deep industrial problems, Boeing was winning the argument with its newest jet, the 787 Dreamliner. It was designed to bypass hubs served by the A380 and open routes between secondary cities: a strategy known as "point to point".
Airbus fought back, arguing that travel between megacities would nonetheless dominate air transport.
But economic growth would splinter in ways Airbus did not predict. Intermediary cities are growing almost twice as fast as megacities, according to a 2018 paper posted by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development.
That's a boon for twinjets like the Boeing 787 and 777 or Airbus's own A350, which has outsold the A380 three to one.
Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders, who was rarely seen as an enthusiastic backer of the A380, toyed with ending the project about two years ago but was persuaded to give it a last chance.
The world ends in 11 years and 10 months so who cares?
The negative of the 380...is that you have to fill seats, and when you are talking about 800 seats on a daily basis, you really don’t need that many around the globe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.