Started by Gabriel Souza (@gabriel_s) ·
why the A380 flopped
6 sources · 42 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- Why did airlines stop buying the biggest passenger jet ever built?
- Ended at
- Emirates (airline)
The Trail
- “why did the a380 fail” (google.com)
- Airbus A380 (en.wikipedia.org)
- Spoke–hub distribution paradigm (en.wikipedia.org)
the model Airbus bet on
- Boeing 787 Dreamliner (en.wikipedia.org)
- Airbus A350 (en.wikipedia.org)
- Emirates (airline) (en.wikipedia.org)
bought around half of all A380s ever made
What I came away with
Airbus bet that airlines would keep funneling people through giant hubs. Instead, efficient long-range twin-engine jets made it profitable to fly smaller planes directly between more pairs of cities. The A380 needs 500-odd passengers per flight, four engines' worth of fuel, and special double-deck gates, so production ended in 2021 after about 250 were built.
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