Just A Matter Of Time?

When Airbus in late April celebrated the tenth anniversary of the first flight of its ground-breaking very large A380 there was no shortage of rhetoric from the European manufacturer. “The plane became an overnight sensation as a global audience of millions watched in awe…since then, passengers go out of their way to fly it, while airlines count on it to boost their revenue,” it declared. Trouble is, the sales figures haven’t lived up to the hype and some are even questioning its future

If aircraft suffer from a mid-life crisis all indications are that the Airbus A380 is negotiating its way through one right now. No one doubts it is a great plane but as it celebrates a decade in the air the world’s largest commercial jet remains the centre of an ongoing debate over whether it really has a future as big as its European manufacturer continues to insist.

That sales have failed to hit the heights expected is no secret but the internal debate over what needs to be done to revive the order book became clear last December when the finance director of the planemaker’s parent, Harald Wilhelm, in an unusually frank remark, told analysts the A380 program would break even in 2018 “if we would do something on the product, or even if we would discontinue the product”.