They're even bigger though, so they have the same problem as the 747 in a post-COVID world only worse.
In hindsight it was a mistake ever developing them. They're a huge loss for Airbus and will never remotely turn a profit.
In hindsight it was a mistake ever developing them. They're a huge loss for Airbus and will never remotely turn a profit.
If air traffic returns to fast growth era, congestion in large cities becomes issue again and A380 shines there. There is only limited number of them and A380 is surprisingly efficient.
Landing slots are expensive. A380 wins cost/passenger easily in busy and congested airfields.
A380 is easy on pavement. Pavement maintenance is roughly third of airfield maintenance. When landing fee rates reflect pavement loading accurately, a380 becomes even more economic to operate in large airfields.
It isn't a dumb idea. It's a marvelous machine. But it isn't viable commercially and Airbus let prestige cloud their judgement. Doesn't help that they fucked up the service introduction, causing a two year delay and probably extra billions.
The noise pollution from aircraft flying over London to land is horrible, and affects millions of people.
They are only scheduled to deliver another 9 planes, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of those end up cancelled.
That being said, the A380 being a lemon certainly cost Airbus far less than the 737MAX program has taken down Boeing.
That’s not the reason. Airbus was exceptionally short sighted; they designed an A380 cargo option but never built it.
> Alas, there are some flaws in the A380 design when it comes to cargo.
> The first is how heavy the A380 is. Because the A380 has a heavier empty weight than the competitive Boeing 747-8F cargo carrier, it actually costs more to get the aircraft in the air.
> In practice, this means that despite having more room onboard, the A380 would hit its maximum carrying weight before the entire volume was filled up, leaving plenty of extra empty room onboard. It would be too expensive for a cargo operator to run to make a profit.
In all honesty, I'm pretty sure Airbus exec went with the A380 design as a pissing contest with Boeing.
https://simpleflying.com/hi-fly-airbus-a380-lisbon/
And this article [1] on my city's airport from 2011 on why landing the A380 was such a big deal. And why they had to spend $4MM to upgrade a single gate. It was a fairly big deal at the time because you couldn't plug a A380 into a 747 slot. And it was almost 3 years after production before KMIA could accept a A380 as normal service.
[1] https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2011-10-24-fl-airbu...