On 27th April 2005, the super jumbo took off to skies and made history. I was in high school at that time. TV news channel show the take off in the news. It was just such a moment that I wish to go back and see it again. I still have a photograph of maiden flight in my room.
Fast forward 10 years, I am fortunate enough to see it in ramp and even fly in it.
A380 is the flagship plane of Airbus. It was designed for the jumbo jet market, which was being dominated by legendary Boeing 747. With success of A320, it was evident that Airbus could do better with a jumbo jet. It is the final frontier.
Airbus invested about $15 billion for the design and production of A380 in the early 2000's. They had an plan to sell 1500 planes (almost half of the market). But so far they only sold 317 planes with 167 delivered yet.
It's not a bad news as such. Aviation business model may contain a break even point of even 30 decades. The bigger the sale is, the greater time it will take. And we are talking about $428 million here. Emirates and other customers were able to purchase the aircraft for a lesser price (about $360 million) for being the first customers and for large orders.
More than a dozen airlines have ordered the aircraft, with Emirates being the major consumer.
Forecast from aviation experts predict that by 2020, Asian markets will grow by multiple percentages and this will have a direct impact on A380 sales.
With A380 it's a matter of time.
Remember that this plane was built in a time of great change in airline industry. But that doesn't mean it is only built for that. The engineers in Airbus were smart enough to design the aircraft to evolve and adapt according to the market needs.
That being said, A380 will always be the queen of the skies.
Until Next time.
CK
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