But Bloomberg News suggests that "at the tender age of 10, the
The A380 did help Airbus end rival
As for the A380, 13 passenger airlines currently have the jet in service. Singapore Airlines was the launch customer. Dubai-based Emirates is by far the biggest operator; its 140 orders account for close to half of all those Airbus has received for the plane.
Airbus initially projected that it would sell more than 1,500 A380s when it formally launched the product in 2000. But, as of April 2015, the company has sold only 317 of the jets. More than half of those have already been delivered, and no new airline orders have come in since 2013.
Bloomberg News writes "by contrast, the two-engine A350 that Airbus introduced in 2006 had secured 780 orders by the time it first entered service early this year."
One Airbus official even suggested in December that the company could end production of the jet later this decade. The jetmaker has since walked back that comment, saying emphatically it won't pull the plug on the A380.
"The A380 was always a small market, but it's a growing market," Airbus sales chief John Leahy says to The Wall Street Journal.
Leahy tells the Journal that A380 orders are about in line with what Airbus expected, though the newspaper says that's "after taking into account that a planned larger version of the A380, and a freighter offshoot, were never built. Airbus scrapped those derivatives when the program fell years behind schedule and ran over cost."
Leahy continues to strike a bullish tone on the aircraft's future.
"This will be a very good year for A380 deliveries and orders," he tells Reuters, saying talks are underway with "several airlines."
Leahy acknowledges to the Journal that "the market will remain a little bit soft for the next couple of years," though he predicts "very strong growth" for the A380 from 2020 forward as Asian passenger traffic increases and as major airports there begin to brush up against their flight capacities.
Andrew Gordon, Airbus strategy marketing analysis director, echoes that sentiment to The Sydney Morning Herald. Gordon says airlines across the globe have shown a preference for bigger aircraft types in orders placed during the past few years.
"We see average aircraft size going up; we see airlines trying to put more seats into their existing aircraft; we see the backlog primarily for bigger variants of [aircraft from] the existing programs," he tells the Morning Herald. He even pointed to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner as an example, noting orders for the bigger 787-9 variant have already outpaced Boeing's initial and smaller 787-8 variant.
The upside for such higher-capacity aircraft – and especially for the A380 – is especially evident at busy international hubs that are at or close to their maximum flight capacities. High on that list would be London's slot-controlled London Heathrow. In the U.S., New York's JFK airport faces similar constraints. A number of foreign airlines use their A380s for JFK service, but no U.S. airline has yet to express interest in the jet. Delta, the USA's third-biggest airline, has even said publicly that the A380 would likely be a bad fit for the carrier.
For now, Airbus appears steadfast in the belief orders for the A380 will pick up soon enough to keep the model going well in to the future.
"This program will be around for 40 to 50 years," Leahy says in a video that Airbus put out specifically for the 10-year anniversary of the A380's first flight.
"No doubt in my mind about that," he adds.
A380 First Take-Off