With the delivery of the last A380, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus ended the chapter of the world’s largest wide-body aircraft today, Thursday. The major A380 customer Emirates wants to receive the very last aircraft of this type ordered on the factory premises in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, a good 14 years after the first customer Singapore Airlines picked up the first A380 in Toulouse in autumn 2007.
At the beginning of 2019, Airbus, under its then boss Tom Enders, decided that production of the world’s largest passenger jet would be prematurely discontinued. The double-decker passenger jet had been causing Airbus great concern for a long time. Hardly any other airline had ordered the model. Airbus threatened to run out of orders.
Nevertheless, Airbus regards the A380 as a success story, as the group’s program manager, Philippe Mhun, emphasizes. He calls the aircraft a “cornerstone” in the development of the multinational from a joint venture of several companies “into a truly integrated company” – in technical, industrial and cultural terms. In addition, many of the A380 innovations later benefited the A350, says Mhun: “Without the 380, Airbus wouldn’t be Airbus today, without the 380 the 350 wouldn’t be the 350 today, and that’s something that is really important.”
Emirates has accepted a total of 123 copies of the double-decker aircraft from Airbus, almost half of all 251 A380s ever sold. The German Lufthansa owns 14 A380s.
For many airlines, such planes are too big and use too much fuel with their four engines – that is not economical, especially if the giant jets are not fully occupied.
The impetus for the development of the giant aircraft was originally the idea of being able to transport as many passengers as possible with as few aircraft as possible on racetracks between large air traffic hubs. In the meantime, however, customer requirements have changed – airlines tend to prefer smaller twin-jet planes for as many direct flights as possible.
