https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/business/airbus-a380-emirates.html

 

Interesting article about the A380. What does the future hold?

 

Supply and Demand, that's always driven an economy, there is no way to artificially work around that other than to create regulations/requirements to force people into a situation such that demand is always there.

As far as future for aviation or just Airbus?  Aviation will eventually have to move to a different energy source, current projections is that oil will become so difficult to extract by 2065 that it will be just too high a cost for the energy extracted (i.e. takes more energy to extract than recovered).  For the more immediate future, oil prices are expected to start increasing rapidly by around 2020 as supply will be unable to keep up with demand ... keeping in mind world human population by 2050 at a conservative projection of around 10 Billion humans (we're at 7 Billion as of 2018) which is about the limit of earth resources to sustain (food, heat, etc.) unless science can come out with some major food production break-thru.

Fortunately there are plenty of alternative energy sources, so the future holds change ... lets hope some very clever scientists figure out away to keep flight intact.

Cheers, Rob.

 

 

The A380 safely has a decade of production left with the current orders, and many airlines seem happy with it. I predict we will see it in the skies for another half century or so.

Aviation will probably use liquid hydrocarbons for the foreseeable future, probably renewable biofuels. There's nothing in sight that could substitute them for aviation use.

 

I really hope that Airbus find the number of orders per year necessary to continue production. I think that it is a great aircraft, and I would hate to see it fade away....

2 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I really hope that Airbus find the number of orders per year necessary to continue production. I think that it is a great aircraft, and I would hate to see it fade away....

Although it must rank as one of the ugliest looking airliners out there today, I love the A380 and love the technology that it represents. I really was hoping against hope at one stage that we might eventually see the proposed stretched version (A380-900) materialise which at least might have looked somewhat better proportioned even with the same awful nose! Sadly the relative inefficiency of 4 engines combined with its relatively low hold cargo capacity compared to that the large wide body twins makes the A380 an unattractive proposition for many airlines. I completely agree though, it would be a shame to see this great aircraft fade away. 

Bill

I was expecting to see this happen!  I know there wasn't going to be an future. I mean the 747 just becoming more dead! not many are still flying. A380 is like an 747. Big, Loves to drink all it's gas, Cost like an earth to run them, Slow to get to locations compared to the dreamliner 

I think many passengers are tired of being forced by the airlines into their model, where you fly in an overly huge, crowded wide-body to a hub airport then continue to where you really want to go, probably in a smaller aircraft. Why not just get into a smaller aircraft that is going where you want it to go to begin with? Also, if one considers the end-to-end travel time, a typical air journey may consume as much time getting to and from the airport, and waiting at the airport to board the aircraft, all of which takes ridiculously longer to do in a very large aircraft like the A380. I feel that many passengers would be willing to pay more to have better convenience and comfort in their air travel. I certainly do not think the A380 is the aircraft to deliver this.

6 hours ago, EmpireKicking said:

I was expecting to see this happen! ..... Big, Loves to drink all it's gas,...... Slow to get to locations compared to the CONCORDE..

Most airliners drink all their gas.... but I know what you mean  It is a huge biffer of a plane - it's nose just doesn't look nicely proportioned.

Oh, and I fixed your quote for you  LOL sorry. dons flameproof overalls..

6 hours ago, AviatorMan said:

I think many passengers are tired of being forced by the airlines into their model, where you fly in an overly huge, crowded wide-body to a hub airport then continue to where you really want to go, probably in a smaller aircraft. Why not just get into a smaller aircraft that is going where you want it to go to begin with? Also, if one considers the end-to-end travel time, a typical air journey may consume as much time getting to and from the airport, and waiting at the airport to board the aircraft, all of which takes ridiculously longer to do in a very large aircraft like the A380. I feel that many passengers would be willing to pay more to have better convenience and comfort in their air travel. I certainly do not think the A380 is the aircraft to deliver this.

Hi. I don't think I could stand to fly in something like a 737 from Houston to Amsterdam.  And I like to see those four engines out there on a 747 instead of two.

Jeff

9 hours ago, EmpireKicking said:

A380 is like an 747. Big, Loves to drink all it's gas, Cost like an earth to run them, Slow to get to locations compared to the dreamliner 

Huh? Typical cruise speed of the Boeing 747-400 is Mach 0.855, typical cruise speed of the Boeing 787 is Mach 0.85 based on information I can find. How is the 787 faster in this instance.

I like the A380 but it didn't work for the American Market or the Trans-Atlantic, reason for that is smaller and more of them is the better business model. Four A330, 757's or 767's compared to one or two A380 or 747's running a Trans-Atlantic Route offers more options for the passenger with more daily departures and allows the airline to compete with other airlines on these routes. This is the reason why the 747 mostly vanished from the market and the A380 never took off in the market. 

What it did was change the long haul, it made Dubai a major hub and for those going from Asia Pacific region to Europe no longer have to go through LAX. No one likes LAX so this means people get better treatment going through Singapore or Dubai instead rather then treated like (word not allowed) in America. Sorry guys I love you but you have to admit you would rather go from Sydney to London through Singapore then LAX even though LAX is faster. 

A380 meant that the rest of the world now has more options in travel that they never used to before it came along, which is a good thing

14 hours ago, scianoir said:

Although it must rank as one of the ugliest looking airliners out there today, I love the A380 and love the technology that it represents. I really was hoping against hope at one stage that we might eventually see the proposed stretched version (A380-900) materialise which at least might have looked somewhat better proportioned even with the same awful nose! Sadly the relative inefficiency of 4 engines combined with its relatively low hold cargo capacity compared to that the large wide body twins makes the A380 an unattractive proposition for many airlines. I completely agree though, it would be a shame to see this great aircraft fade away. 

Bill

Yeah its like the a318 of the A320 family.

I don't consider it to be ugly at all. I think it looks very elegant for such a large aircraft.

Meh, sounds like Leahy trying to drum up a few more sales before his imminent retirement. Of course, if the order book does become empty, production may be terminated permanently. But the end of A380 production has been foretold many times before and it's still here, it still has its place at congested hubs.