Airbus announced in February 2019 that the production of the Airbus A380 would cease in 2021. After eleven years due to the soft Airbus A380 Orders and Deliveries, Airbus has made the hard decision.
When the A380 was launched, it was anticipated that 1,200 of the type would be produced, which would have covered development, construction and profit. The truth is that less than a quarter of that number were ordered. In the last months, we have seen airlines cancel their orders. Notably, QANTAS who received 12 of the 20 they ordered, has now cancelled the remaining 8. Virgin Atlantic cancelled their order of 6. Even Emirates, the largest customer of the type with an order of 162, are talking about reducing this order in favour of the Airbus A350-1000.
So why has the A380 not sold? There are several factors. Firstly, the expense of an aircraft that requires 4 engines to run. The overhead is far higher than the large twin-engine jets which are becoming more popular. Airlines are also challenged to fill each flight with over 500 seats to ensure profitability. In addition, airfields that can accommodate the Super Jumbo had to be heavily modified to accommodate the large jet. The theory behind the use of the A380 was dependant on a hub and spoke system. The A380 would fly between main hub cities. Travellers would then connect on to smaller regional centres. The emerging reality, however, is that many of the larger long-range twin jets can fly virtually anywhere using existing airfield facilities.
So it seems, just like the Boeing 747 8i, the A380 has been overtaken by changes in technology and market demand. The time of the oversized airliner is over.
Below are the first 8 customers to take the first delivery of these flag ships of their fleets.
Airbus A380 Launch Customers.
Delivered: 15 October 2007
First Commercial Flight: 25 October 2007, Singapore to Sydney.
Delivered: 28 July 2008
First Commercial Flight: 05 August 2008, Dubai to New York
Delivered: 19 September 2008
First Commercial Flight: 21 October 2008, Melbourne to Los Angeles
Delivered: 30 October 2009
First Commercial Flight: 21 November 2009, Paris to New York
Delivered: 19 May 2010
First Commercial Flight: 06 June 2010, Frankfurt to Johannesburg.
Delivered: 24 May 2011
First Commercial Flight: 17 Jun 2011, Seoul to Tokyo.
Delivered: 29 May 2012
First Commercial Flight: This aircraft flew on the Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow route from 02 July 2012.
Delivered: 14 October 2011
First Commercial Flight: This aircraft was initially used domestically from 17 October 2011.
Airbus A380 Order Book
As of August 2022, the A380 order book looks like this:
| Total Orders | 251 |
| Total Deliveries | 251 |
| Aircraft in Operation | 239 |
| Number of Operators | 16 |
| Number of Customers | 14 |
Airline Customers of the A380
Correct as at end of August 2022.
| CUSTOMER | Region | A380 | |||
| Ord | Del | Opr | |||
| AIR FRANCE | FRANCE | Europe | 10 | 10 | 7 |
| ALL NIPPON | JAPAN | Asia | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| ASIANA AIRLINES | KOREA, REPUBLIC OF | Asia | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| BRITISH AIRWAYS | UNITED KINGDOM | Europe | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES |
CHINA | Asia | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| EMIRATES | UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | Mid. East | 123 | 123 | 120 |
| ETIHAD AIRWAYS | UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | Mid. East | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| KOREAN AIR | KOREA, REPUBLIC OF | Asia | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| LUFTHANSA | GERMANY | Europe | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| MALAYSIA AIRLINES | MALAYSIA | Asia | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| QANTAS AIRWAYS | AUSTRALIA | Asia | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| QATAR AIRWAYS | QATAR | Mid. East | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| SINGAPORE AIRLINES | SINGAPORE | Asia | 24 | 24 | 17 |
| THAI | THAILAND | Asia | 6 | 6 | 2 |
| UNDISCLOSED | 0 | 7 | |||
| TOTALS | 251 | 251 | 239 | ||
Airbus A380 movements this month.
| Month/Year | Order/Deliver Activity |
|---|---|
| November / 21 |
Variations with last month. Orders No change Deliveries No Change In fleet Undisclosed changed from 7 to 8. Movers Undisclosed changed from 7 to 8. |
If there is more you want to learn about this airliner, please visit; A380 Home, A380 Specs, A380 Assembly, A380 Interior and A380 History.
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Your lists are out of date.
Hi Hugh,
thank you for noticing. 🙂
I got them all done except for the A380 this morning. I will attend to that a little later today.
Cheers Peter
Hi Hugh,
all aircraft are now up to date to end the of September 2018, which is the latest for Airbus and Boeing. Two A380s were delivered, one to Emirates (surprise surprise) and one to Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines have now got their full order of 24. I also saw the Undisclosed had three In Fleet, but now have two. At the same time Hi Fly Malta have one in service without having ordered one.
Cheers Peter
It is sad to see the the end of the production line of A 380. It looks like the problem was the higher expense of having four engines. Two engines aircraft like the 777 have a lower seat mile cost compared to the four engined airliners like the A 340 and A 380. Three engined airliners were tries earlier- Lockheed 1011 and the Douglas DC 10 and both were failures. Will the industry go back to a three engine airliner the size of a 747 in the future? I don’t see it in the near future.
Hi John,
Yes, it is sad to see the demise of the four engined airliner. They have been with us for a long time now, even before the jet age. Jet engine technology has come such a long way and this has led to a much higher dependability of those engines. In the early days, there was a reasonably high probability of an engine failing during flight. With four engines, the aircraft could continue on its way, or at least divert to the nearest available airfield.
A regulation called ETOPS or Extended Operations, governed the ability of twin engined airliners to fly more than a given amount of flying time from the nearest available airfield. So when American Airlines asked Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas for a slightly smaller version of the 747, they couldn’t really consider a twin engined version due to the over water component of many routes. Airliners must gain ETOPS certification which can be expressed as ETOPS180 for an aircraft that can fly more than 3 hours from the nearest available airfield.
Airbus changed the landscape with their A300, beginning the age of the giant twins. The DC10 incidentally went on to be a success and outsold its break even point. The L1011 Tri-Star never caught up and Lockheed has not dabbled in the commercial airliner space since.
Airbus must have been hoping to unseat the Boeing 747 as Queen of the Skies with their A380, but it seems that the sun was already setting on both.
Cheers Peter
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