Airbus might halt A380 production in 2018

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30427116
Airbus shares fell 10.4% to €43.20 (£34.32)on Wednesday, marking their worst one-day fall for six years and wiping €3.9bn off the company's value.  The A380 aircraft is only in its seventh full year of operation and cost about $25bn to develop.
Airbus has already announced plans to cut production of its A330 aircraft by 10% to nine aircraft a month.  But it said on Wednesday it would have to cut production again in 2016 to an unspecified level, following slow progress in finding buyers for the aircraft, ahead of a planned upgrade in 2017.
 
... chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm said the aircraft manufacturer would have to provide different engines from 2018 to make it more attractive, or discontinue making it altogether.  Mr Clark (Emirates) said if Airbus went ahead with proposals to upgrade the A380 by adding new Rolls-Royce engines, Emirates would eventually replace all the 140 aircraft it had ordered with the newly upgraded version.
 

 

[yoyodyne]

 

[777 fixer]

The A380 had more to do with ego's than an actual business case.  The current market for commercial aircraft has proven that.

 

[eolesen]

Yep. I've worked for a French company, and prestige seems to trumps profit every time.

Can you imagine if they'd have poured half the effort from the A380 into something with the 773's range?

 

[777 fixer]

Yep. I've worked for a French company, and prestige seems to trumps profit every time.

Can you imagine if they'd have poured half the effort from the A380 into something with the 773's range?

 
 
Boeing should thank there lucky stars that Airbus went ahead with the A380.  If Airbus had decided to go a twin Boeing would be in a very bad spot right now.  

 

[777 fixer]

On the flip side Airbus should be happy that Boeing botched the 787 program as badly as they did.

 

[777 fixer]

It looks like Airbus has changed it's mind.  
 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/airbus-delivers-first-a350-rules-110811093.html
 
They can talk about how committed they are to the A380 all they want.  If no orders are forth coming then they might not have a choice.

 

[777 fixer]

Some serious back peddling in Toulouse.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/11342235/Airbus-defends-A380-superjumbo-as-it-reveals-order-success.html
 
Tends to happen when your stock price takes a hit and the CEO of Emirates rips you apart in the press over the A380.

 

[777 fixer]

Looks like the end is near.
 
http://fortune.com/2015/11/10/with-no-airbus-a380-sales-at-dubai-its-the-end-of-an-airliner-era/?xid=yahoo_fortune

 

[topDawg]

Yep. I've worked for a French company, and prestige seems to trumps profit every time.

Can you imagine if they'd have poured half the effort from the A380 into something with the 773's range?

They did after they put out the EK plane. 
 
The A350 will be a good aircraft. The engine issues are a pain but manageable (the Trent XWB-84 (359) and Trent XWB-97(35K) isn't just a simple thrust plug change but two different engines.) 
the A350-1000 is pretty close to a 777-300ER. 
 
having said that, working with Airbus, its very clear they do things just to try to be better than the Americans. Example, Airbus can't just use a regular Phillips head for its fasteners, noooooo gotta be the stupid airbus fasteners. The reason i was given why? Boeing uses Phillips 

 

[eolesen]

The 350 may wind up being a good aircraft, but a few years too late.

You'll have some carriers stick with Airbus because of the anti-American sentiments, but there are also a subset of airlines who now have a pretty hefty investment in the 777, and won't want to add a new fleet type or take the risk of Airbus floundering again as they did with the A340 and A380.