Why is Airbus getting rid of A380?

So why has Airbus decided to kill it? The main reason the company will halt production of A380 after 12 years, from 2021, is the low number of planes sold. “In the end, you have to face facts, and we could see that we were building A380s faster than people were ordering them,” Lange says.



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“While beloved by passengers for its spacious cabin, the A380 is more expensive to operate and maintain than newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft.” As fuel prices skyrocketed, twin-engine planes that could service the same routes became seen as a more cost- and environmentally-friendly choice, Birdsong says.

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In February 2019, Airbus announced it would end A380 production by 2021, after its main customer, Emirates, agreed to drop an order for 39 of the aircraft, replacing it with 40 A330-900s and 30 A350-900s.

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The iconic A380 has flown over 800,000 flights carrying more than 300 million passengers since its entry into service. As production comes to a close, the A380 will keep flying for decades to come, and Airbus is continuing to fully support A380 operators and their fleets. This is a modal window.

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The A380 in Asia Along with China Southern, Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways have retired their A380s, but the double-decker still has a presence in the region. All Nippon Airways (ANA), Asiana Airlines, Korean Air and Singapore Airlines continue to operate their A380s, with 33 Asian-operated A380s in service today.

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In 2020 at the pandemic's onset, Etihad also announced that their 10-strong A380 fleet would be permanently grounded. However, in late 2022 the airline announced its return. The aircraft will be deployed on service from Abu Dhabi to London exclusively as well. These flights will resume over the coming summer season.

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The remaining nine aircraft were due to be phased out slowly, but when the pandemic hit, the airline took the plunge and retired the remaining nine almost immediately. Eight of the aircraft were placed into storage where, according to planespotters.net, they remain to this day.

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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.

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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.

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1 Emirates The 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.

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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.

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Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Airbus A380 – 502 million USD. The world's most expensive private jet belongs to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia who owns an Airbus A380 with a price tag of over 500 million USD.

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Airbus lost a lot of money on the A380 Their 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.

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Not well-designed for cargo The A380 is so large that a freighter-equivalent would offer the largest payload capacity of any aircraft other than the An-225, which was used to carry Soviet spaceships. The A380's emphasis on volume makes sense as a vehicle optimized for passengers, not cargo.

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For some airlines, the A380 offered too much capacity, while for Emirates, the airline can't get enough of the plane. Unfortunately for Emirates (and us passengers), the days of the Airbus A380 are numbered. Airbus stopped A380 production in 2021, as there weren't sufficient orders to keep production going.

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Regarding airports, it's hardly surprising that the world's largest operator, Emirates, with 119 A380s in its fleet, made Dubai International Airport (DXB) the busiest airport for A380 flights.

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None of the US-based airlines operate the A380, although a number of airlines use A380s to fly to the United States, including Air France, Asiana, British Airways, China Southern, Emirates, Ethiad, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Qantas and Singapore Airlines. Or at least that was the list as of about a year ago.

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The amortization of the original investment was not considered in this equation. Based on this information, we can assume that the Airbus A380 program never turned a profit when we consider the huge investment the aircraft manufacturer made to start the program.

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The average hourly rental rate of the Airbus A380 is around 37,150 USD per hour.

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During production of the double-decker quad jet, it's estimated that an Airbus A380 would set you back roughly $445 million. Although airlines such as Emirates and Etihad are massive proprietors of the A380, Airbus announced that production would end in 2021.

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While the second-hand A380 market remains non-existent, you could now buy a former Air France A380. Except for Emirates, which is flying 15 Airbus A380 aircraft, and China Southern, most of the world's A380s remain firmly on the ground due to COVID-19.

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The bottom line. Overall, the A380 seems to come out far ahead in first class as there may also be wider availability of tickets. It also comes ahead in business class unless passengers are traveling in pairs and do not need access to the bar.

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