Guest Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Airbus says A380 superjumbo production could end http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42689289 Read more about sharing. These are external links and will open in a new window European planemaker Airbus has said it will stop making its A380 "superjumbo" if it does not get any more orders. Sales director John Leahy said Airbus would have to halt the programme if the plane's main customer, Dubai's Emirates airline, did not place another order. "But I'm hopeful that we work out a deal with Emirates," Mr Leahy added. Sir Tim Clark. president of Emirates Airline, told the BBC: "We remain optimistic that a deal can be concluded." Airbus said Emirates was probably the only airline to have the ability to take a minimum of six planes a year for a period of eight to 10 years. Airbus's comments came as it revealed that had received more orders for planes than Boeing last year, the fifth year in a row that it has beaten its US rival. The pan-European firm said it had booked 1,109 aircraft orders and a record 718 deliveries last year. US rival Boeing booked 912 orders and 763 deliveries. Airbus chief operating officer Fabrice Bregier said overall deliveries could rise to 800 this year, thanks to the increased pace of production of its medium-haul A320neo aircraft. He said deliveries of the A320neo were slowed last year because of problems with the plane's engines, but these issues were now being resolved. Twin decks The A380 project was first conceived in the early 1990s as an eventual successor to the Boeing 747, with development work beginning in earnest in 1993. The plane has twin decks of seats, and is designed to incorporate amenities such as bars, lounges, beauty salons and duty-free shops, according to customer specification. There have been a total of 317 orders for the the world's largest passenger airliner since its launch in 2007. The Airbus A380 made its debut commercial flight in October that year with Singapore Airlines flying from Singapore to Sydney. Qantas took orders of the plane in 2008, flying the route between Melbourne and Los Angeles. Air France and Lufthansa have also flown the Airbus A380, but its largest customer over the years has been Emirates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super 80 Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 They're playing chicken with Emirates and IAG at the moment. Emirates is demanding impossible guarantees, IAG is demanding impossible discounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudder Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Looks like Airbus will have to get some sales advice from the experts at BBD....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 And just in the neck of time. Superjumbo jet future secured by Emirates order 4 hours ago http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42732842 The Emirates airline has announced an order for up to 36 Airbus A380s. The $16bn (£11.5bn) deal amounts to a reprieve for the A380 after Airbus threatened to stop making the jet if it could not come to a deal with Emirates. Emirates is the only airline to have put the A380 at the heart of its operations and had been expected to place an order for more of the jets at the Dubai Airshow last November. However, it then ordered 40 Boeing 787 Dreamliners instead. Emirates said it had now made a firm order for 20 of the A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, with options to buy a further 16. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2020. Emirates is already the largest customer for the plane, with 101 currently flying and 41 more firm orders previously placed. On Monday, Airbus sales director John Leahy said the company would have to halt the A380 programme if Emirates did not place another order.Image copyright Getty Images This is a vital order for Airbus, which has been struggling to get airlines to buy its troubled superjumbo. It has been forced to slow production right down, from 27 aircraft annually a couple of years ago to 12 this year. It expected to deliver just eight in 2019. Emirates is far and away the biggest customer for the A380. Without its backing, Airbus would eventually have had to close down the production line in Toulouse altogether. Now the programme has the life support it needs. Airbus says today's order underscores its commitment to produce the A380 for at least another 10 years. By that time, growth in the aviation market may have recreated a business case for it. The A380 was designed to carry large numbers of people between heavily congested hub airports, where take-off and landing slots are at a premium. In recent years, it hasn't been needed, because airlines have focused on using smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft to carry passengers, often on direct routes between secondary airports. But if the market continues to grow rapidly, airport congestion may well become a serious issue again, particularly in Asia. At that point the A380 could come into its own. The A380 project was first conceived in the early 1990s as an eventual successor to the Boeing 747, with development work beginning in earnest in 1993. The plane has twin decks of seats, and is designed to incorporate amenities such as bars, lounges, beauty salons and duty-free shops, according to customer specification. Before this latest deal, there had been a total of 317 orders for the A380 since its launch in 2007. It made its debut commercial flight in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines flying from Singapore to Sydney. Qantas took orders of the plane in 2008, flying the route between Melbourne and Los Angeles. Air France and Lufthansa have also flown the Airbus A380, but its largest customer over the years has been Emirates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Emirates Airlines Order Saves Airbus A380 Superjumbo -- For Now Michael Goldstein , Contributor I cover the travel biz: airlines, hotels, rental cars and destinations Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Airbus Commercial Aircraft Fabrice Bregier (L) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Airbus Customer Services John Leahy (R) pose prior to a closing press conference at Le Bourget on June 22, 2017 during the International Paris Air Show. (ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images) John Leahy, the "trillion-dollar man" of Airbus sales, has done it again. Just a week before his (once-again) supposed retirement, the 67-year-old sales chief (his official title is Chief Operating Officer of Airbus Customer Services) and his allies at Airbus pulled another rabbit out of a hat. This time, after threatening to shut down A380 production, the magician produced the long-elusive sale to the airline Emirates that will keep the line going for the foreseeable future. The order isn't as large as Airbus had hoped. Instead of buying 36 to 38 A380 jetliners outright, a deal that fell apart at the Dubai Airshow in November, Emirates has reportedly placed a provisional order for 20 planes, with an option for an additional 16. But as Britain's Daily Mail breathlessly reported, "Superjumbos are saved!" Emirates airline's chairman and CEO, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, said: "We've made no secret of the fact that the A380 has been a success for Emirates. Our customers love it, and we've been able to deploy it on different missions across our network, giving us flexibility in terms of range and passenger mix." Emirates chief executive officer Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum in Dubai in 2016. (Photo credit should read MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images) With the deliveries of the new aircraft scheduled to begin in 2020, it would seem A380 production could stretch to 2030 or even beyond. The reported $16 billion deal (the plane's list price is $446 million, but actual numbers are a matter of conjecture) will save thousands of jobs at Airbus and keep the production line and research going. Ultimately, the deal buys time for Airbus so it can attempt to persuade other airlines that the A380 can be a profitable addition to their mix of aircraft. Yet the sale to Emirates shows just how unbalanced the A380 program is. Emirates, the flag carrier of a country of 10 million people, already operates almost half (101 of 217) of the A380 aircraft in service. The last non-Emirates order for the A380 was in January 2016, when the Japanese carrier ANA ordered three. So the most important order for the A380 may not be the "lifeline" thrown to it by Emirates, but the next one. A new order from China might show that Airbus' argument, that use of the 555-passenger A380 can reduce congestion at Asia's crowded airports, is finally gaining traction. Hong Kong Airlines, for example, recently announced aggressive plans to serve markets in New York, London and San Francisco, in addition to its Los Angeles service. The scarcity of takeoff and landing slots at near-capacity Hong Kong Airport would seem to make it the perfect fit for the A380's massive passenger capability. However, so far it looks like the airline will serve the routes with the 21 A350-900s it has on order from Airbus, a plane capable of seating 325 and flying up to 9,500 nautical miles. This is an example of the real question that faces the giant plane: Who really needs it? While the plane has been a success for Emirates, it is not because of a clamor among the general flying public to fly on the A380. Instead, Emirates, long accused of taking massive government subsidies, has been said to use the A380 to offer low fares, like the current $454 Newark-to-Athens round-trip offer. As a Hong Kong newspaper noted on the arrival of the A380 to the local market, "Emirates’ low-fare strategy has already caused much anger and frustration among rival airlines in Asia, Europe and the United States." Although the Emirates sale keeps the production line going, the problems with the A380 usage case remain. Wide-bodied twin jets from Boeing and Airbus itself are cheaper to operate and easier for the airlines to fill than the A380. A flight attendant arranging a premium-class seat of a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 on Dec. 14. Photographer: Nicky Loh/Bloomberg Worse, Airbus and the airlines have so far not succeeded in marketing the A380 as a "must-fly" experience, like the Concorde and the 747 were in their time. Only Singapore Airlines (and Emirates and Etihad, to a lesser extent) have successfully marketed the A380 as a luxury experience, with a bar, fold-out beds and the like. The European countries that build the A380 have so far not successfully marketed it as the luxurious flagship of their national airlines. Lufthansa operates only 14 A380 aircraft, British Airways 12 and Air France 10. The fourth Airbus partner, Spain, which appears set to become the second-most-popular tourist destination in the world, operates none. The plane is not seen as an aspirational "must-fly" by most Americans, largely because they are unfamiliar with it. Ironically, Leahy, the Airbus super-salesman and a native New Yorker, has yet to sell an Airbus A380 to a single American carrier. A future for the A380 has been guaranteed by the latest sale to Emirates. Now it's up to Airbus to convince the airlines, and the traveling world, that the great plane is truly the queen of the skies, not just another niche aircraft. An Emirates A380 aircraft touching down at Chicago O'Hare International Airport in 2016, marking the first A380 passenger service in O'Hare's history. (Jean-Marc Giboux/AP Images for Emirates Airline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 7 hours ago, Malcolm said: The plane is not seen as an aspirational "must-fly" by most Americans, largely because they are unfamiliar with it. Ironically, Leahy, the Airbus super-salesman and a native New Yorker, has yet to sell an Airbus A380 to a single American carrier. I'd love to see the orange tweet storm if a US carrier dared to order even one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
internet Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 I can’t imagine a case for A380 at the US3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super 80 Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 United kicked the tires on the A380. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 8, 2018 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Virgin cancels long-dormant A380 order 07 March, 2018 SOURCE: Flight Dashboard BY: David Kaminski-Morrow London Virgin Atlantic has finally cancelled its order for six Airbus A380s, the airframer's latest backlog data shows. Airbus has listed a cancellation of six of the double-deck type in its figures covering the first two months of this year. Virgin Atlantic had six A380s on order, but Airbus no longer lists these aircraft against the UK airline. The carrier had been among the first A380 customers, originally signing for the Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered jets in 2001. But it has repeatedly postponed deliveries – the jets were supposed to have been handed to the airline in 2006 – and Virgin Atlantic has since amended its fleet plans to include long-haul twinjets such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350-1000. Virgin Atlantic has confirmed the A380 cancellation. "Following a thorough review of our fleet we have taken the decision not to pursue our order for six Airbus A380," says the carrier. It says it is "in discussions" to acquire additional A350-1000s, as it prepares to introduce the first of its current batch of 12 from spring next year. "We believe the A350-1000 will best serve our customers and network, and will enable us continue reducing the carbon emissions from our fleet, through our ongoing investment in quieter, more fuel efficient aircraft," it adds. Airbus has lifted the A380 backlog, however, with the inclusion of 20 firm aircraft for Emirates. These take total A380 orders to 331 of which 222 have been delivered, leaving 109 still to be produced. Airbus is aiming to deliver 12 A380s this year but is intending to cut production of the A380 to just six aircraft per year from 2020. Story Link: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/virgin-cancels-long-dormant-a380-order-446556/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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