Why was the A380 discontinued?

The A380 production ended with the departure of former Airbus CEO Tom Enders due to a lack of demand; the company had 17 orders in the backlog. After Emirates cut its A380 order by 39 aircraft, leaving just 14 on the backlog, the final decision was reached to terminate production on the A380.



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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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Currently, the world's biggest international airline has on order 50 A350-900s, 30 787-9s and 115 Boeing 777Xs. The airline operates 119 A380s, 123 Boeing 777-300ERs and 10 Boeing 777-200LRs. The 777X aircraft will replace the A380s, while the A350s and 787s will eventually replace the 777s.

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“We've developed the most passenger preferred aircraft in the world,” Airbus head of business analysis and market forecast Bob Lange says. 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.

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Since its introduction, the A380 has established a strong safety record and is regarded as one of the safest aircraft in the world. The aircraft has been involved in only two significant incidents since its introduction – a 2011 crash in France and a 2016 tyre burst incident in Australia.

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The world's largest passenger plane has been mired by controversy since it took flight in 2007. Despite the ability to carry up to 500-800 paying passengers onboard, the plane was simply too expensive, too fuel hungry and too big to be practical in today's world.

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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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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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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.

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?? Size: The Airbus A380 is the largest commercial passenger aircraft in the world, while the Boeing 777-200ER is a relatively smaller aircraft. The A380 can carry up to 853 passengers in a single-class configuration, while the 777-200ER can carry up to 440 passengers in a single-class configuration.

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The initial purchase price of an Airbus A380 can range from $300 million to $400 million depending on the model and specifications. This is the cost to purchase the aircraft in its current condition and does not include the cost of customization.

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As of December 2021, the global A380 fleet had completed more than 800,000 flights over 7.3 million block hours with no fatalities and no hull losses. As of December 2022, there were 237 aircraft in service with 16 operators worldwide.

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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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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.

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Surprisingly, despite being bigger, the Airbus A380 can reach speeds of more than 1,000 kilometres per hour compared to the Boeing 787 which tops out at 954kph. Although both are very fast, passengers flying on the Airbus A380 could get to their destination quicker than those flying on the Boeing.

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Currently, the bragging rights for the longest flight in the world belong to Singapore Airlines' New York City to Singapore route. Its longest flight path, which connects Singapore's Changi Airport with New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, 9,585 miles away, takes 18 hours and 40 minutes.

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One of the main disadvantages of the Airbus A380 is its size. Its large size can present a challenge for pilots, as the aircraft is more difficult to maneuver than smaller jets. Additionally, its four engines require more fuel than smaller aircraft, making it more expensive to operate.

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But fast forward a year, and the A380's hefty size and steep operational costs had no place in the pandemic's minimal, cost-efficient international flight schedules. Thanks to Covid-19, most of the world's A380 fleet were grounded.

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Specifically, the Airbus A380 handles turbulence very well!

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