New super jumbos are no longer being made, but it is flying more and more
The Airbus A380 has been the largest passenger aircraft to soar through the sky for almost sixteen years. The device had the necessary development and production problems from day one. Economic setbacks and changing aviation due to the arrival of low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet have played a role in the A380. With the corona pandemic and the changed climate goals (less emissions, more conscious travel), the device seemed to have reached the end of its lifespan in recent years, much earlier than originally planned. Many airlines are grounding their A380s early and unfolding plans for an early replacement of their A380 fleet.
A380 returned to grace
Nevertheless, the sentiment surrounding the largest passenger plane in the world seems to be turning again this year. To the right side of the scales for Airbus. Airlines such as Lufthansa decided to put the previously parked A380s back into service. Quantas has also been flying the aircraft for a while now, although it was born out of necessity. Qatar Airways has yet to make that decision after its CEO admitted last year that the company regretted ever adding the A380 to its fleet.
Another major A380 customer, Emirates, has just the opposite this week called. There, people are very pleased with the monster jumbo from Airbus. So much so that they have decided to keep the current A380s in service until at least the end of the next decade (the 1930s, ed.).
No new Airbus A380s have been built for a while. Airbus has already stopped production in 2021 in the corona times and driven by sustainability goals. The last A380 that was built, which will not really surprise anyone after the above story, went to… exactly, Emirates.
The director of Emirates even hopes that Airbus will one day reverse its decision and start building A380s again. No longer in the configuration like the current devices, but perhaps a more modern variant that is lighter and more economical. That may be a vain hope, but… never say never. Certainly not in aviation.
Airbus A380 was not lucky
When the Airbus A380 was presented, it was by far the largest passenger aircraft in the history of motorized aviation. It started in 1903, when the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright flew for the first time with a motorized aircraft – which looked more like a hang glider. Well, in four flights with the Kitty Hawk – or Wright Flyer – the brothers covered less than a mile. The last flight lasted 260 meters, after which the aircraft was damaged by a gust of wind just after landing that it would never fly again.
Some 97 years later, at the end of 2000, Airbus announced that development of the A380 had started. A passenger aircraft for up to 853 passengers and with a range of up to 15,200 kilometers (with a full load just over 10,000).
With the A380, Airbus wanted to make a successor to the popular, but already quite matured, 747 from competitor Boeing. The first commercial flight of an Airbus A380 was on October 27, 2007, some eight years after its introduction and after having overcome many development and production challenges.
Who may have forgotten, barely a year later, a number of banks plunged the world into one of the largest and longest lasting financial crises the world has ever known. This seemed to mark the end of the expensive, not only purchase but also operational costs. People flew less, airlines had to compete more with low-cost airlines. And no expensive and kerosene-guzzling super jumbo fits in with that.
In the end, it was the corona pandemic, and with it the (temporary) decimation of aviation, that put the proverbial final nail in the A380’s coffin.
