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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Three days after warning the A380 might not have a future, Airbus says it will likely keep making the plane into the 2030s.
The turnaround came after Dubai-based Emirates placed an order for 20 more of the behemoths, with options for another 16. The carrier already has 101 A380s in its fleet and had already ordered another 41. The airline therefore has plans to acquire 178 of the planes, but won't ever operate that many as some of the newly-ordered machines will replace older models.
Airbus said the deal will "will provide stability to the A380 production line" and let it keep making the superjumbo for years. Which is great news for the thousands of people around the world who make the plane or parts of it, and for Airbus itself.
[...] The company still hopes that carriers other than Emirates will pick up the plane, which it positions as ideal for routes to popular destinations where landing slots are at a premium. Airbus expects more cities will acquire that status as airline traffic grows.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:17AM (4 children)
A380 is dead plane flying. Airlines are buying 777/787 for transoceanic flights instead - more fuel efficient, and don't have to pack so many into a single flight - probably cheaper to fly two 787s than a single a380. The only reason for the Emirates order is to keep the production line going for a few more years so its existing fleet of A380 will be maintained and retain a degree of market value.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:21AM (2 children)
I should note, passengers love A380. Know why? It's a spacious beast that is rarely ever full - the same reason why airlines don't like it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @07:06AM
I flew on one NYC FRA SIN and it was full but still very comfortable and smooth.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday January 20 2018, @10:40AM
Economy passengers like whatever the cheapest flight is. If there's a 787 flying at 9AM for $500 and an A380 flying at 5AM for $450, guess which will be chosen
Business passengers have a larger variety of requirements. A bed is clearly a requirement, but everyone worth mentioning has those, but the other important aspects are things like schedules and soft services like wifi.
London to New York on BA/AA can't be beaten on schedule - you turn up, and there's a plane within the next hour. However they can't put 16 A380s on that route, so they want smaller planes.
When it comes to direct planes the 787 may be small and efficient enough let me fly direct from Manchester to Nairobi (except it doesn't), but even if it did it's unlikely to be a daily schedule. I flew BA (terrible airline -- dropped massively in quality in the last 5 years) because of the schedule - it was the quickest plane that let me leave home after 2300 on the Tuesday. The cabin was half empty. Change in London. Other options included Emirates and Qatar which had even more options (2 or 3 flights a day), but didn't happen to fit the right timings for me - one of the flights was full too.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday January 20 2018, @12:28PM
The Airbus factory in Broughton [airbus.com] was hanging on by a wing and a prayer...