Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
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Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#2I fly Emirates A380 from time to time, I have to say the business class is better than the first class of most carriers. Very quiet, masses of space, and the bar is not bad at all when you want to stretch your legs. And when you get bumped up to first... having a shower on a flight is very nice :)
The only problem is the godawful stopover in Dubai - If there is one advantage that the non-gulf carriers have, it's that they can offer short+long haul to get from Europe to Asia, as opposed to medium+medium/long. Sometimes I'll fly on BA, which is far inferior on every point, just to have a bit of uninterrupted sleep.
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#3Can't help but think that this vindicates Boeing's bet on the smaller 787.
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#4If customers believe this, is it self-fulfilling?
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#5When it comes to airplanes, bigger isn't necessarily better. I guess the novelty value has worn off and giant jets like this have limited appeal. If there was a significant cost saving (there isn't) then of course it would make sense, but due to the limited number of airports that can service these planes and the high cost, I don't see much future in them. The efficiency just isn't there.
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#6Boeing played the market correctly here. When everyone was oohing over the A380 Boeing said super jumbos were on their way out and focused on the 787. If it hadn’t been for Emirates buying so many A380s to begin with it would have been a flop from the start (Emirates alone operates almost half of the A380s ever built).
The future in long haul is mid-size highly efficient twin engine jets and here Airbus is scrambling to catch up with Boeing in both sales and design.
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#7Can't help but think that this vindicates Boeing's bet on the smaller 787.
I think that was obvious from at least 10 years ago. Airbus’s bet at the time raised a lot of eye brows, while boeing’s didn’t. The only thing Boeing screwed up on was outsourcing too much of the assembly.
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#8When it comes to airplanes, bigger isn't necessarily better. I guess the novelty value has worn off and giant jets like this have limited appeal. If there was a significant cost saving (there isn't) then of course it would make sense, but due to the limited number of airports that can service these planes and the high cost, I don't see much future in them. The efficiency just isn't there.
They do pay off for large congested airports with limited landing slots (e.g. Beijing between Guangzhou, which is the only 380 I’ve flown on). But this isn’t as much of a problem as we thought it would be 20 years ago. Incidentally, this used to be why Japan flew so many 747s on domestic routes.
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#9> Emirates, however, has been a strong believer in the A380 and is easily the largest customer with total orders of 142 aircraft, of which it has taken just over 100.
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> Emirates, for its part, wants a guarantee that Airbus will keep production going for a decade to protect its investment.
Closing the A380 production line isn't going to happen for years anyway, considering the backlog they have, so, this leak looks a lot like a tactical one to put pressure on Emirates.
Re: Airbus ready to axe A380 if fails to win Emirates deal
#10Boeing played the market correctly here. When everyone was oohing over the A380 Boeing said super jumbos were on their way out and focused on the 787. If it hadn’t been for Emirates buying so many A380s to begin with it would have been a flop from the start (Emirates alone operates almost half of the A380s ever built). The future in long haul is mid-size highly efficient twin engine jets and here Airbus is scrambling…
It seems like a company can only make one successful move at a time (in what I find a very ugly) industry. At the lower end Boeing struggles with the 737 being too large for a lot of markets. There Embraer, Bombardier (now part of Airbus), and a bunch of other companies seem to have an opportunity, if they can execute. It'll be interesting to see what Boeing does there given the cozy relationship with Embraer.