Now that the pandemic seems under control, the great queens of the sky are making a comeback. Etihad, Emirates, Lufthansa, Qantas, British Airways and other airlines, including new start-up Global, are putting the A380 back to work.
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The futureDespite great odds, the A380 is back in operation with many airlines that had previously written off the type from their fleet. This includes Qatar Airways, Lufthansa, and most recently, the Etihad A380 returned to service.
For one, the Airbus A380 has almost double the space onboard compared to the Boeing 777 series, thanks to its second level. This means the airline can afford to be a little more abundant with its first class and business class offerings onboard the A380 compared to the Triple Seven.
Boeing last week said additional regulatory scrutiny of the larger 777X planes following the Max crashes as well as weaker appetites for new jets from customers amid the Covid pandemic contributed to delivery delays of the wide-body jetliners.
Range and flexibility. Surprisingly, for all its size, the A380 can't go as far as the A350. The A350-1000 can travel more than 1,000 km (540 NM) further than the A380. Singapore Airlines has a special 'ultra-long-range' (ULR) A350-900, which operates on the longest route in the world, from Singapore to New York JFK.
On 16 December 2021, Emirates received its 123rd A380, which was the 251st and last delivered by Airbus. The A380's estimated $25 billion development cost was not recouped by the time Airbus ended production.
Airbus lost a lot of money on the A380Their development costs upfront were somewhere in the range of 17-25 billion USD. Then when it came to production costs, Airbus allegedly only barely broke even. So it's safe to say that Airbus lost a lot of money on the A380, though we don't know how many billions.
A total of 251 Airbus A380s were built and delivered for civil aviation. How many A380s are still flying? As of May 2023, about 130 A380s are in service - but several airlines plan to reactivate more aircraft during the year.
Airbus estimates that their A320 series aircraft have a lifespan of around 60,000 flight hours or 24,000 flight cycles. The A380 series aircraft have a lifespan of around 25 years or 60,000 flight hours.
For now, the upper limit for current and proposed aircraft seems to be around the 400-seat mark. Many current A380s are likely to be phased out over the next decade, if not sooner. As such, it seems very unlikely that we will see another aircraft of its size any time soon.
The arrival of the A380 in 2007 was poorly timed. The price of jet fuel had begun to creep up, and by 2007 was floating at around $4 a gallon. This made airlines shy away from the expensive to operate four engine jets of the 80s and 90s, and to look instead to fuel efficiency as a major deciding factor.
Out of a total of 254 Airbus A380s, seven superjumbos have been dismantled and scrapped. Let's take a look at these six aircraft and their histories. MSN 003: This aircraft had its first flight in May 2006 and was initially registered as 9V-SKA to fly with Singapore Airlines.
1 EmiratesThe airline took 123 Airbus A380s from Airbus, though seven are already listed as historic by ch-aviation, with 76 listed as active. The airline has over 60,000 seats installed across its Airbus A380 fleet, and in the single year of 2018, it scheduled over 61,000 flights.
While the two are barely different in economy class, the A380 offers an additional premium economy service. If you get the chance to fly in first class, then the Emirates Airbus A380 is an excellent alternative to other airlines, but business and economy leave a lot to be desired.
The website tinitustalk.com pulled research figures together for several widebody aircraft – with the A380 coming in lowest at 69.5 dB. The Boeing 787, for comparison, was quoted as 72.7 dB and the Airbus A350 at 74.9 dB.
In terms of capacity, it is abundantly clear that the A380 can carry significantly more passengers than any 787 variant. With 525 passengers in a standard, three-class configuration, the A380 has a sizeable advantage over the Boeing 787-10, which seats 323 passengers across three classes.
As of August 2023, Emirates is the largest operator of the A380, accounting for 68.6% of all A380 capacity, followed by British Airways and Singapore Airlines. Dubai International Airport is the busiest airport for A380 flights.