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A380 Cancellations by Qantas Raise new Questions About the Superjumbo's Future:
Australia's Qantas (QABSY) said Thursday that it had scrapped longstanding plans to buy eight more of the double-decker planes
The A380 has been a major disappointmentfor Airbus ( EADSF) , racking up less than a quarter of the sales the European company forecast when it first introduced the giant jetliner more than a decade ago. The underwhelming demand has fueled questions about how long the manufacturer can justify continuing production of the iconic aircraft.
[...] Other airlines including Virgin Atlantic have ditched plans to buy the aircraft in the past year. Airbus now has only 79 firm orders for it, according to FlightGlobal data.
The program's future could hinge on Dubai-based Emirates, the largest A380 operator with more than 100 of the aircraft in service. The Gulf carrier last year ordered a further 20 of the superjumbo jets, with the option to buy an additional 16 on top of that.
But Airbus said last month that it was renegotiating the deal with Emirates following reports that the airline was looking to switch its orders to the smaller and newer A350.
According to Wikipedia, an A380 has seating for 575-853 depending on variant and configuration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:10AM
How many 747s have been wrecked since 2007? Consider that the 380 flies maybe 1/100th of the daily miles a 747 does, and also consider the type of work they do.
Let's see how the scarebus does in 50 years. In fact, how much you want to bet there won't be a single A-380 in airworthy condition in 40 years more time? They just aren't worth it. They make for lousy cargo aircraft. It was a bad business decision from the beginning. They built it to show off, purely for bling, gold colored plastic for low class people with lots of money. Throw it into the Pacific with all the other plastic.