Rafiq Jan
Aviation expert, author, and analyst
World’s biggest and most luxurious plane A380 is plausibly at the verge of extinction. A true wonder of aviation history ever crafted by Airbus industry engineers may never take to the skies again. No one thought this sky queen would breathe its last at a tender age of 12 years.
Unique features
- Airbus A-380 the double-decker, is by far the world’s biggest aeroplane ever built. It can proudly take nearly 115 more passengers than its predecessor Boeing 747-400/800 in a standard seating configuration.
- It can seat 850 passengers in an ” All economy” configuration.
- Airports need facilities that are exclusive to handle this colossal bird weighing 1.3 million pounds / 560 tonnes and wing tip to wing tip distance of 261 feet. An extravagance only selected airports in the world can afford to offer.
- First flight was in October 2007
- The basic list price a piece, without cabin interior and cosmetics, is US$450 million. Anything above is up to the choice and capacity of operators to choose as the “Buyer Furnished Equipment.”
- Total built 242. Last delivery was in 2019.
- Shortest A380 flight was between Dubai-Doha —one hour, whereas the most extended trip, was between Dubai-Auckland —sixteen hours.
- The launch customer was Singapore airlines—-in October 2007.
Airports compatibility
Airports need special up-gradation to the infrastructure to accommodate this oversized aircraft. Few typical examples are:
Higher than usual level Air-bridges for its upper deck doors, adequately upgraded runways and taxiways to match the aircraft dimensions and appropriate ground handling equipment and the trained staff to handle all that.
Those are few of the additional costs the airports had to bear to accept this big bird because, without compliance of such mandatory requirements, the Civil Aviation Authorities will not approve the A380s to operate.
Fallen from grace
Who knew back in 2007 that double-decker aeroplanes would be flying with almost 600 passengers with hundreds of tonnes of cargo. It was indeed a marvel of aviation towards the end of the 20th century. But pandemics care for none. They upend the global economies in an unprecedented manner and end up inundating everything that humans took centuries to build.
Despite limitations of usage and biting operational costs, many legacy airlines kept it airborne as a status symbol. They had an illusion of capitalizing on its fame and glory to win the long-term business travellers’ confidence. While the Gulf states’ premium airlines, being poster children of their respective wealthy countries, snuggled to its glorious outlook for showcasing their national flags around the world.
An unseen enemy, the coronavirus pandemic, has thrown the planet earth in at the deep end. An abyss that will take years to fill. Epidemics on a global scale bring apocalypse for some while changing the dynamics of progress and development for others. But this time around the Aviation and travel industry are the most beleaguered and hard-hit industries that will probably take years to recover.
Unfortunately, A380 couldn’t win the viability for operators in the long term business ventures. Its extraordinary size enticed the airlines like Emirates, Qatar and Etihad to invest heavily on building a Hub and Spoke system which offered a state-of-the-art transfer facility for onward journeys without creating bottlenecks at local airports. But those plans were eventually short-lived as other big airlines started using smaller planes, with only two engines and highly fuel-efficient, capable of flying long-haul with a full load, carrying point to point passengers instead of hub and spoke. A much smarter move that reduced the operating cost while using the available ground facilities.
Hence the A380 aircraft, with under-filled cabin for a point-to-point transportation, wasn’t too feasible for the U.S and many European and Australian airlines. Others, like Gulf airlines, had limited options and continued using it with inevitable trade-offs. Its operational cost eventually became too high for everyone which finally forced Airbus industry to announce it will halt the A380 production in 2021.
Four engined, the half-filled cabin wasn’t the best choice compared to twin-engined planes with less passenger seating but the same range of operation and even much lower upfront costs.
An aeroplane with too many unique requirements to maintain managed to be a darling of some premium and state-owned airlines. But lately, with mounting fuel prices along with a very competitive travel market, it became a white elephant for all. Being too big, with fuel guzzler engines, it didn’t give operators much choice to continue operation while manipulating with the variety of equipment in the fleet. In a nutshell, A380 wasn’t too lucky to dominate the travel market as compared to its predecessor, the Boeing 747.
Emirates Airlines of the United Arab Emirates is the leading operator of A380 with a vast fleet of 115 superjumbos. It spent a whopping amount on first and business class outlook, including much-coveted in-flight showers designed exclusively for them.
Emirates trained over 23000 cabin crew and 1500 Deck crew (pilots) only for this iconic plane.
The production cost of one first-class private suite, of Emirates’ A380, was US$ 500,000.
There had been apprehensions about the uncertain future of all wide-body fleet. Since the economy of Dubai state is highly dependent on the stability of its airline, any volatility about its financial future can be detrimental for the state’s economic viability.
Aviation and travel activities are crucial to the economy of Dubai. An economic survey conducted a few years ago unveiled the startling realities that the aviation and tourism industry of Dubai contributes to 44% of the state’s economy and 35% of the local jobs. So a sudden demise of half of the airline’s fleet may send the country into a deep depression.
Crumbling emirates airline means crumbling Dubai—-looming dangers of losing outside world’s connections to the country due to the demise of the only source—-the Emirates Airline.
Air France had only nine numbers which offering pretty modest and low- profile cabin facilities as compared to other operators who spent billions on luxurious cabin interiors to woo the business travellers. It had an earlier plan to retire them, but in the wake of a pandemic crisis, they’ve already been de-commissioned.
British Airways has only twelve A380 in the fleet which are not much different than other B777s and B747s regarding the cabin interiors and onboard attractions. They maintained them at the average acceptable and affordable standards of British Airways for ages.
But British Airways has the edge over all other world airlines when it comes to using Heathrow airport—being the most sought-after and most expensive airport terminal for buying a slot. Reportedly a slot at Heathrow airport may cost in tens of millions of dollars and no one in coming years can think of spending a dime on such luxuries. So it can still keep and benefit from the superjumbos if it wants to, or strike some lucky deals in exchange.
China Southern Airline has only 5 Airbus A380s in its entire fleet. But an airline that uses B747s and B777s for domestic routes as shorter as 2 hours has a great business travel future despite the pandemic in the backdrop. It belongs to a country with an air travel volume bigger than and unmatchable to all. Surprisingly china southern is the only airline still flying A380 when the whole world had packed them in storage.
Singapore Airlines is the launch customer of the world’s biggest passenger plane A380 with 19 aircraft, of which some had already been retired due to ageing. It had one of the world’s most luxurious first-class suites configuration.
Qatar Airways has only ten numbers of A380 which, as per its CEO, may never be airborne again. The earlier plan was to keep them in storage until the second half of 2021 but given the gloomy future for air travel this iconic machine seems to be a part of the history.
Plane makers’ views
The whole of Europe inflicted by coronavirus pandemic, and their economic recovery seems to be a far cry in the coming few years. The U.S economy, as of now, appears to be going down exponentially and the experts predict the future of it will be worse than the great depression of the last century. The aviation industry will take years to return to the level it was in the pre-COVID-19 era.
Boeing CEO David Calhoun says, ” COVID-19 was just a boulder dropped in the pond. Still, the tsunami waves rushing outward are swamping the airline industry, the plane manufacturers, suppliers and all the households and communities that rely on those paycheques”.
Parting shot
Iconic planes will be fast disappearing from the skies earlier than expected. Coronavirus has wreaked havoc to the Aviation industry even worse than 9/11 crisis. It is agonizing for aviation enthusiasts to see this queen of the skies, Airbus 380, singing its swan song.
