the airbus 380 goes into early retirement

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They are just a little more than 14 years of the first flights of a Airbus 380 and this modern aircraft has entered early retirement, forced.

Whatever the big bet of the European manufacturer Airbus to confront Boeing in the wide-body aircraft segment, double-decker and powered by 4 engines is coming to an end much faster than expected, an end that is approaching in the face of drastic decisions by its clients, the airlines.

Brief history

The general project of this modern aircraft dates back many years., 1988 when the first developments of the plane began to circulate on the work tables of Airbus engineers as a project to compete with Boeing and Jumbo 747.

The then-called “megaproject” was announced to the world in 1990 at the Farnborough Air Show in England, at that time with the first indicators that would reduce by 15% operating costs in relation to the competition.

Initially named Airbus A3XXX in 1994 began to take shape in design with the combination of two complete fuselages one on top of the other, unlike the Boeing 747 which is only in the front of the aircraft.

Only by December 2000, Airbus gave the final go-ahead to launch the A3XX program after carrying out studies at hundreds of airports around the world to determine maximum wingspan sizes., height and seating capacity that meets the needs of potential customers.

Mass manufacturing of the thousands of components of the aircraft began in January 2002, within a multimillion-dollar project that exceeded $25.000 millions of dollars, triple what had been initially calculated, thus putting the first obstacles to the project.

The first fully built and tested aircraft was the MSN 001, which before 5.000 people and thousands of curious people from all over the world was presented on 18 of January of 2005 in Toulouse, France to begin ground tests prior to the initial flight.

The 27 april 2005, after several delays in the execution of the project due to technical and operational difficulties of the air giant that turned it into the largest passenger plane in the world and that could accommodate inside more than 820 passengers, It took off before the eyes of the whole world and with great fanfare it was presented to society on its first test flight..

The first commercial flight and launch customer was Singapore Airlines on 25 October 2007 on a flight between Singapore and Sydney, but what would happen next, led to the early retirement of this brand new aircraft.

They are currently 15 airlines that have Airbus A380 aircraft in service within their fleet out of a worldwide total of 222 airplanes flying on HiFly airlines, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas, Air France, Lufthansa, Korean Air, China Southern, Malaysia, Thai, Brithis, Asiana, Qatar, Etihad and one of the newest All Nippon Airways.

What went wrong?

From the own words of senior Airbus officials, they indicated that the plane arrived at a bad historical moment and that it is very advanced for the time and within this the manufacturer will close the production line of the huge plane in 2021 when the last unit is manufactured.

We can analyze several problems that affected this aircraft, Among them stand out:

• operating costs: with the rise in the price of oil, operate an aircraft 4 engines is much more expensive than twin-engine airplanes that can still carry a large number of passengers in high-density configuration, the same thing that happened with the Boeings 747 and its variants.
• Technical problems: There are several unscheduled maintenance problems that have generated discontent among airlines and incidents of various magnitudes such as engine failures and more recently reports of cracks in the wings of some specific aircraft have generated "a rupture" Airbus – operators.
• It came at the wrong time: I agree with Airbus statements, the A380 is a great aircraft, but it came at a time of evolution of aviation, where they give way to airplanes with only two engines that Airbus itself manufactures and launches year after year improved versions that generated its own internal competencies for its large airplane that did not allow it to compete with delicate economies and airlines that seek even more profitability in their operations every day.. If the plane arrived in the 70s or 80s, It would have been a huge success..
• Mercado: Not all countries have the market capacity to receive this aircraft., limiting its operation to any part of the world, being that there are destinations that need several daily flights instead of just one massive one as the A380 offers..

Airlines say goodbye

• Malaysia Airlines: is already looking for buyers for its 6 Airbus A380 aircraft.
• Emirates: The airline confirmed that it expects to keep the A380s in its fleet until approximately a year 2035, subject to market conditions. During the 2019 The retirement of the first has already been announced 2 Airbus A380.
• Air France: The airline is the most recent to confirm the departure of the A380 from its fleet, for him 2022 The departure of this plane from France has been confirmed, when the first ones leave the fleet this year.
• Qantas: has not indicated the departure date of the aircraft, but canceled the 8 additional orders I had for the A380.

Future

It does not mean that the Airbus 380 they will stop flying, They still have a lot of future ahead of them. The departure of large airlines opens the opportunity for emerging airlines to take charge of these aircraft, paying much less in purchase or leasing to develop their market strategies., Why not a low-cost concept with very high density?.

Too, Opportunities could open up for the creation of new variants such as the freight option that never materialized., but that could occur with the imminent drop in the costs of these aircraft due to the now zero demand for this aircraft.

whatever the case, We still have a long time to see the Airbus A380 fly through the skies of the world, just like what happens with the Boeing 747, which is also a must, simply, no more will be built and the number of aircraft in service will not grow.

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