Op-Ed: The A380 Was Not a Failure and Should be Remembered Just like Concorde

So many people see the end of production as the end of the aircraft, but the aircraft may fly for many years after production end. Take the 727 for example, Boeing stopped production in 1984 yet they continued to fly for many many years. I saw an article a couple days ago; Airbus grounds the A380, totally not true, they are just not taking anymore orders. The production is scheduled to end in 2023 but the aircraft may fly for many years after that.

For a Passenger, it is a great experience! And it remains...

from the peanut gallery where you are, you may not see the A380 the failure that it has been revealed to be. If you sit in an airline executive suite your opinion would be : flies nice, costs way too much, needs very high load factors at high revenues, burns much av gas, and we can't make enough of a profit to buy and keep the aircraft. No american trunk carriers ever bought this plane, and that gives insight into the problem. It is majestic, lovely to watch land and takeoff, and never reached their sweet spot of a market. Concorde was built and flown in spite of the market realities of revenues and fuel costs. Same short sighted reasoning..

Some people are jumping on the 380s tombstone. Not so soon. Everybody was jumping on the BombardierAirbus 2200. Over 500 units have been sold with more orders pending. Don't count your sales until they are painted and on there way to their customer. Everyone said that Airbus A220 bombed. Stranger tales th ave been told...however the 380 story is not over yet. Don't write Airbus off into Airbust. There are lots of people to fill their seas.

I like the dbl decker plane to fly in.still will fly just not make new ones after a certain date

The A380 was a smooth comfortable glove spanning aircraft. An Engineering marvel. Good in turbulence, difficult to land smoothly sometimes. Had Boeing worried just like the Concorde did. Same fate which was engineered I think to eliminate competition. Better than the old 747.

The interesting issue here is that A380 became not profitable, simple as that.
Also some years ago Boeing published an airline forecast where they predicted the medium and small capacity aircraft will be in high demand.
With the development of two engines, high capacity aircraft, Airbus created the conditions for the A380's demise, as we can see today the competition is focus on this types of aircraft.
The Project Sunrise led by QANTAS is considering two types, A350 and B-777x