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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: 3, Interesting) by Lester on Saturday January 20 2018, @11:09AM
I've read several comments about how comfortable, spacious etc etc it is. Airbus is not comfortable or spacious neither Boening 777/787 are. Plane comfort depends on how the airline company that bought it customized it. Planes are like the empty building of a restaurant, in the same building you can install a fast food restaurant with 100 tables or a three michelin stars restaurant with 30 tables.
What is important in a plane is initial investment, fuel by Kg/Km, reliability, maintenance cost etc.
Usually, the bigger plane is, the less costly by Kg/Km. On the other hand, the bigger plane is, the price of a new plane is higher and the less airports it can land on, the more difficult to sell out all the seats for a flight. The more modern the plane is, the last security technologies it has, and testing tools are more modern and automatic. On the other hand, the more modern the plane is, the less planes are in the market, so it is more difficult to find qualified staff, and more expensive the replacement parts are, and more flaws that are yet to be detected (not deadly flaws, but costly flaws).
Boening 787 competes against A330, not against A380. A380 can carry double of passengers and cost double, and maintenance ...nobody knows yet. In the long term A380 looks good idea, but yet to be proved, in the short term it's a really big investment, so it's is a big bet. Many companies, particularly small companies, stick on B-787, it si not such big initial investment, and contrary to A380 that it's new plane almost from scratch, B787 is an evolution so is more tested and staff need less training . But surprisingly enough some small Indian companies have bought A380. I suppose that when you are the small, you must rise the bet.
IMHO A380 has future, but not a brilliant future, just future. Let's wait and see.