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Airbus Is Giving Up On the A380 (cnn.com)
"It's the end of the line for the biggest passenger jet ever built: the A380 is going to cease production," writes Slashdot reader Required Snark, citing a report from CNN. From the report: The European plane maker said Thursday that it will stop delivering A380s in 2021 after its key customer, Dubai-based airline Emirates, slashed its orders for the huge jetliner. "We have no substantial A380 backlog and hence no basis to sustain production, despite all our sales efforts with other airlines in recent years," Airbus CEO Tom Enders said in a company statement. 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. Its plans were undermined by airlines shifting their interest to lighter, more fuel efficient passenger jets that have reduced the need to ferry passengers between the big hubs. "Passengers all over the world love to fly on this great aircraft. Hence today's announcement is painful for us and the A380 communities worldwide," Enders said. "But keep in mind that A380s will still roam the skies for many years to come and Airbus will of course continue to fully support the A380 operators."
Not to mention that due to the extreme size and weight of the aircraft most airports required rework to even handle them, so only the biggest/busiest airports dropped the millions and millions of dollars to be able to handle them.
Bottom line is that Airbus bet on the A380, and Boeing bet on the 787. Boeing won the bet...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Good news. The hub-and-spoke model needs to die a quick death. If that means taking impressive planes like the A380 with it, so be it. You haven't known anxiety unless you have been subjected to the experience of running around the airport with your handbag trying to catch the second leg of your flight (after the first leg has been delayed) because the flight after the one you are about to miss is scheduled for tomorrow at 6:30AM.
The A380 has always been a monument to European stupidity/delusion of grandeur and meeted its obvious fate. Just like a lot of other European pie in sky projects. It was obvious to everyone, not now, but 20 years ago that commercial aviation would have gone the route of point to point travel instead of hub to spoke for intercontinental travel . The death of the A380 couldn't have come quicker.
Geez, 20 billion euros thrown down the drain, and the company Airbus won't even have to reimburse the national governments that financed this shit. When you make such a mistake (because this mistake wasn't made on rational grounds, it was made on the stupid French altar of The Grandeur) is made the higher ups should be thrown in jail and their assets confiscated. Let Airbus live or die on its merits. Enough with public money going to such stupid companies.
Airbus made the same bet with A350. It competes for the same segment as 787.
Yes. But it's not more efficient to carpool on a bus when you've only got 4 people to pool together. The A380 only makes sense for the busiest routes which makes greatly reduces its usefulness. And if you can't sell the thing out, it would have been more efficient to use a smaller plane.
I would ask that you provide proof of your claims but I don't think I will get any. You went straight to insults and assume you are right with no facts
It must be an absolute nightmare to have such a long, expensive development cycle and supply chain, along with heart-stopping capital costs.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.