Although it never reached the romance level of the
Anglo-European Concorde, does Airbus decision to scrap the production of the
A380 by 2021 mark an end of an era in the aerospace industry?
By: Ringo Bones
To most aviation and aerospace enthusiasts, the four-engine Airbus
A380 is more than just a technological tour-de-force. The fact alone that its
main parts are made across four countries in the Eurozone – i.e. France,
Germany, UK and Spain could be seen as a cross-border economic miracle for
those who still believe in the promise of a European Union. Sadly, economic
exigencies in the current air travel industry – especially during the past few
years – have sent a death knell to the Airbus A380’s production run.
When plans to produce the A380 Superjumbo was presented to
Airbus’ top brass during the late 1980s, it was projected that the aerospace
company could sell around 2,000 Superjumbos and there was also a desperate need
for the Eurozone-based Airbus to grab the market share of Boeing’s flagship 747
Jumbojets which were selling like hotcakes to the airline industry since the
end of the 1960s. At the time, Airbus’ top brass saw that the A380 Superjumbo
could better meet the challenges in connecting the world’s crowded airport hubs
– London, New York, Dubai and Tokyo – in comparison to the existing Boeing 747
Jumbojet. Despite of black-swan events that shook the civil aviation / air
travel industry – i.e. the September 11, 2001 terror attacks – Airbus’ top
execs still believe that they could still steal the 747’s market dominance and
went ahead in the A380 Superjumbo’s production.
Despite production delays, the Airbus A380 Superjumbo
finally took its first ever commercial flight back in 2007 with Singapore
Airlines. It swiftly became popular with the flying public due to the added
legroom and spaciousness, but it was complicated and expensive to produce in
part thanks to the way production was spread across various locations. Sadly,
demand for the A380 Superjumbo from the world’s major airline companies
eventually dried up as the industry shifted away from larger planes in favor of
smaller wide-body jets which offer comparable fuel efficiency per passenger
like the two-engine Boeing 787 Dreamliner and even Airbus’ own smaller two-engine
passenger planes like the A330 and the A350.
The future of the Airbus A380 Superjumbo has been in doubt
for several years as orders dwindled. But in a statement on Thursday, February
14, 2019, Airbus said the “painful” decision to end production was made after the
Dubai-based airline company Emirates reduced its latest order by cutting its
overall A380 fleet size from 162 to 123. Emirates said it would take delivery
of 14 further A380s over the next two years, but has also ordered 70 of Airbus’
smaller A330 and A350 models. Even though US airline companies decided to
retire their fleet of Boeing 747 in 2018 and British Airways already decided to
also retire their fleet of 747 Jumbos by 2021, there are still plans at Boeing’s
main Seattle production plant to make the freight / cargo carrying variant of
the famed 747 way after the year 2025, it looks like the venerable 747 Jumbojet managed
to outlive its competitors sent to kill it.
