Better late than never? Airbus set to deliver 1st A380 superjumbo Monday

The Canadian press ^ | 10/14/2007

[Rummenigge]

Weight is an issue for every aircraft.

I take it that you could haul 1000 pax - you’d just not have the same reach.

Anyhow the A380 is the best weight lifter in the leage of passenger aircraft.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

The market will tell - up to now the A380 already sold 50% of what would be needed for a return on invest -

Well, not exactly. The last figure Airbus admitted to was 470 for breakeven, and the total has gone up since though they won't admit what it now is. The late delivery payments, extra money spent fixing the wiring issue, and the dollar dropping vs the euro has really affected the bottom-line for the A380. Another bad omen, the last 3 years has been the biggest boom the commercial aircraft market has EVER seen, and yet VLAs sales like the 747 and A380 barely even registered. The market is moving to smaller aircraft.

[Rummenigge]

There’s no question the market needs much more mid size aircraft.

That doesn’t mean that the market doesn’t need heavy aircraft either - it’d be ok if the market needs just 1000 of these over the next 20 years - I don’t think boeing will come up with something similar in the next 10.