TERRY SMITH wonders what will become of the A380.
Okay, describing it as that is a little unfair as the A380 did get into service, unlike many of aviation's great failures of large aircraft - Hughes' Spruce Goose, the Bristol Brabazon and the Saunders Roe Princess. However, in a world that has rapidly changed in front of our eyes over the last twelve months, is there a future for the world's largest airliner? Well, to be honest it is looking bleak for the twin deck behemoth, although this is not all down to the global turndown.
Let us go back to Farnborough 2000 with Airbus Industries pitching their super huge plane to the world's airlines. At the same time, Boeing was pushing their 787 Dreamliner as being the future of air travel and also stating that they would definitely not be doing any further stretches to their existing 747 model. Boeing felt that the world did not need such large four-engined aircract anymore and that smaller fuel-efficient twin jet powered airliners were what their customers wanted. That was until Emirates signed on the dotted line to purchase initially seven A380s with options for a further five at the Farnborough show. Boeing then immediately announced its was to have one more roll of the dice and, trying to steal some of Airbus' thunder, released details of the proposed 747X program. In the end the 747X family did not get produced due to lack of interest, although some of its development was incorporated in the final version the 747-8.
My first sight of the A380 was at Farnborough 2008 it was so large it didn’t seem real!
This left Airbus with a clear market to sell its Super-Jumbo, many orders followed, and things looked rosy. Its first test flight was from Toulouse in 2005, and Singapore Airlines received the first delivery in 2007. They eventually took 24 aircraft for their long-haul routes. But this was eclipsed massively by Emirates who currently have 115 A380s in service. Other Middle Eastern airlines followed with Etihad and Qatar taking ten apiece, as did many other of the world’s international carriers. However, surprisingly no US carriers took any, and even British Airways' loyalty to the Boeing 747 meant they didn't introduce their A380s until 2013. British Airways currently own twelve, making them the joint fourth with Qantas in the league table of ownership, but when did it start to go wrong?
With 115 in service you're more likely to see an Emirates owned plane in the sky than any other A380 - maybe not from this angle though.
Well, the first thing that Airbus did not bank on was the cancellation of their freight version the A380F. A total of twenty-seven orders of the freighters worth billions of dollars were axed. With no orders coming from the other side of the Atlantic for the passenger planes and existing operators feeling the pinch of high running costs and unfilled flights, more cancelled orders followed. Add to this the fact that nearly all A380s have been grounded for almost a year due to the pandemic, Airbus have decided to produce their last Super-Jumbos this year. This will take the total built to 251 aircraft, with the company taking a huge loss on the programme. It's not certain where some of the planes that have come to the end of their leases will end up, but without a queue of potential customers some may well sadly get scrapped long before the end of their useful life expectancy. What we do know is that Emirates are still a huge fan of the plane and plan to operate the A380 until at least 2035, they have also earmarked some planes to act as spares donors to keep their fleet flying, so when the world starts flying again, they are not disappearing from our skies just yet.
A380s at Heathrow. These are some of the world's larger operators of the aircraft, although there were many non-takers such as KLM and Virgin Atlantic, as well as all of the US airlines.
Models of the Airbus A380 are available in various scales from Herpa Wings. This is the BA version in 1/500th scale. Check out the full range on our website.