The end is near for the Airbus A380 production. Emirates announced Wednesday that Airbus will deliver the final double-decker aircraft to the carrier in November, officially ending the program.
Emirates is the biggest buyer of the A380 making up nearly half of the 251 orders. Currently, the airline has 115 A380 aircraft in its fleet but will grow that to 118 after the final delivery. Initially, the carrier was supposed to receive its last A380 in June 2022.
The airline plans to keep the A380 in its fleet for at least another 20 years, offering comfortable long-haul travel on the modern, spacious jet.
The A380 took its maiden flight in 2005, and was an impressive feat of engineering at the time, but has since become one of Airbus’ biggest failures due to its high operating costs and inefficiency in the modern era.
However, the jet wasn’t the game-changer Airbus envisioned, especially on the financial front. For much of the plane’s life, Airbus has struggled to find airlines willing to put the A380 into service. With a price tag of $445.6 million, the A380 is one of the most expensive and lavish airplanes ever built, with room for as many as 800 passengers.
Thus, the program ends with just 251 planes. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the plane’s death knell, with airlines around the world grounding their fleets and some outright retiring the jet.
Here’s a look at the topsy-turvy history of the Airbus A380 superjumbo.
This story was originally published by Benjamin Zhang in November 2017 and updated by David Slotnick in 2020. It was updated in September 2021 by Taylor Rains.
By the early 1990s, Airbus was in a much different position. Its narrow-body A320 family, which helped pioneer civilian fly-by-wire technology, was well on its way to becoming the second-best-selling jetliner in history.
At the same time, the company unveiled its new A330 …