- Joined
- Feb 1, 2009
- Messages
- 43,065
- Reaction score
- 10,622
The A-380 went into service ten years ago but on Monday, the company had suggested that the program would be ended if they didn't receive more orders. Only 222 have been delivered so far while Airbus had said it had 317 firm orders. They had expected to sell 1200 planes. The problem is that there are limited places large enough to handle the plane and it requires a lot of resources to get passengers and baggage unloaded and reloaded and the plane refueled. Airbus based their strategy on increasing passenger numbers and a hub flight system. Passengers don't want to switch planes so smaller planes that can fly longer routes became more desirable.
The countries involved in building the plane took a big risk. Boeing had researched such a plane and decided it was unlikely to be profitable. Airports had to make changes to handle the planes and there were a limited number large enough to do that so it's use would be limited. It appears that they might have been correct. I'm sure Airbus had hoped that more airports would expand to handle the plane.
747 airplanes are ending their service life after almost 50 years in favor of cheaper to operate planes.
