We're about to fly on an Airbus A380, the biggest
commercial plane in the world. It's so big that most airports can't accommodate
the size of it. That's actually why you can't see it in the shot
right now, because the gate itself is so big that it's blocking the view of the plane. People stop and stare when the plane is taking off
because you're just wondering, how does this thing get in the air and stay
there? It really is a showstopper of a plane. The size alone makes it special and just the engineering done to achieve such a
feat. The Airbus A380 was designed for long haul
flights. It has four engines, is a full length double
decker that provides two levels of passenger seating, which can carry over 800 people. Its tail is as high as a six story building. Its wingspan is just over 261ft, which is longer
than the plane itself. It has a range of 8,000 nautical miles and a
takeoff weight of over 1 million pounds. Technically, it was, it was a sort of adventure
having this, full length double deck aircraft was was never
done before. And from the early discussions to the freeze of
the architecture of the aircraft, it took us about about ten years. When it debuted, the A380 overtook the long
reigning Boeing 747 as the biggest widebody airliner, but demand for such big four
engine planes didn't last long. The executives at Airbus may have watched Field of
Dreams one time too many because I think they had a and if you build it,
they will come moment with the A380. In 2019, one A380 was priced at $445 million. Airbus sold 251 planes to 14 airlines, but
Emirates was by far its biggest customer. We are a major airline when it comes to the hub
and spoke, so it played a major role in carrying as much
passengers via Dubai into the rest of our network. So the A380 has been quite crucial. Orders peaked in the early 2010's, then started to
decline during the Covid 19 pandemic. It was one of the most heavily impacted fleets
due to its sheer size and cost to operate, along with the near halt to international long haul
travel. I believe at one point, about 90% of the A380
fleet was grounded. Airbus manufactured the plane for 14 years until
it ended production in 2021. Many thought it was the end for the Superjumbos,
but the A380 has been making a comeback with several airlines pulling planes out of
retirement. CNBC explores how the A380 became the biggest
passenger plane in the world, and what the future looks like for the massive jet. The idea for a double decker passenger plane
wasn't a new idea when the A380 was being developed. In fact, one of Boeing's original
concepts for the 747 in the 1960s was a full double decker. But as we know, the 747 ended up with its iconic
hump and only a small upper deck section. Before Airbus designed the A380, it actually had
talks with Boeing, and the two of them began working jointly
on what they called an ultra high capacity aircraft, an airplane that
would be larger than the Boeing 747 and designed to fly
long distances as the 747 did. That cooperation dissolved when Boeing concluded
that there just wasn't demand for this large of an airplane. Airbus proceeded with the venture on its own. It launched the A380 program in 2000 and entered
commercial service in 2007. We had challenges everywhere, even in terms of
industrialization, of course, jigs and tools. Everything is huge for the A380,
and so it was a challenge to design this tool and manufacture the plane. Designing a new plane is a huge undertaking and a
costly one. It's estimated that Airbus has invested perhaps
$25 billion, maybe more, maybe a little less on the A380, and
they did not come close to earning that money back. The company ran into lots of issues and delays,
causing the stock price to drop nearly 26% at one point. But it needed a plane that could ferry lots of
passengers like the Boeing 747, which could hold over 400 people. Our product line was kind of limited in terms of
aircraft capacity. Therefore, competing with Boeing were in this
very large aircraft segment was a kind of a matter of
credibility. Airbus also estimated strong demand for the large
aircraft market. In the 90s, we were anticipating a very
significant growth in air transport and therefore connecting megacities with,with a very
large plane, that would allow to carry a big number of
passengers who was making a lot of sense. The time it takes for a commercial airplane to be
designed and then manufactured can take years, leaving Boeing and Airbus to base designs on
market trends. If you looked at the way Boeing was looking at the
world, there were hub and spoke systems that form the foundation of a lot of air
travel networks today. But Boeing's bet was that these networks would
continue to become more scattered, and there would be more point to
point routes and a move away from hub and spoke in. The hub and spoke model. Passengers are funneled
through large hubs to connect on to other destinations. The point to point model moves
passengers between destinations directly without routing them through a central hub. That led to their product decisions on wide body
jets like the 777 that came out in the mid 1990s, and then the 787 and the late 2000, and
that serves those types of networks. Twin engine aircraft like the Boeing 787 and
Airbus A350 carry fewer passengers than a 747 or A380, but can now travel
almost just as far. Airbus, on the other hand, was betting on a world
where we would basically see more airports like London Heathrow that are really
slot constrained, and that would force airlines to have to up gauge to serve the same number of
passengers, but with less frequent flights. We're about to board this A380 and look at the
amount of people who are getting ready to board here. The plane that we're flying on is Emirates
and it seats over 500 people. So the A380 is so big it has three different
jetways to get everyone on board. It's actually a full double decker with the
bottom decker of this plane actually all economy, which is where we're sitting. It's quieter. It feels bigger. You know, it's it just, you know, that it's a big
mammoth flying. It's a beautiful aircraft. It has two sets of stairs, one in the front and
one in the back, and 220 windows throughout the aircraft. The A380 first
commercial flight was in 2007, operated by Singapore Airlines. The A380 is definitely a passenger friendly plane,
but it's definitely also not for every airline and not for
every route that an airline may operate. Emirates is the largest customer and operator of
the Airbus A380. Out of the 251 planes ordered, Emirates took
delivery of almost half of them. The A380 is a beautiful product. We've trusted the brand, we've trusted the
aircraft itself. If you look in the cabin. It kind of looks like any other widebody, but the
fact that there's an entire other level above us makes the A380 so massive. The double decker plane has allowed airlines like
Emirates and Etihad to offer high end amenities in flight, like full suites with lie flat beds,
lounges and even in-flight showers. Airlines have made their A380s very pleasant for
passengers. Even in economy. It's quiet, which is important. There are high ceilings, there's plenty of
overhead stowage, space for carry on bags. And when you fly on an Emirates A380. You can have your Polaroid taken. While its big size does allow for more on board
amenities and seats, it was a challenge for some airports. So when the A380 came out, a lot of airports were
scrambling to figure out how to fit it. And, you know, some large hubs had to modify
their gates to be A380 ready. The amount of infrastructure work that airports
have had to make to accommodate the A380 is quite substantial. There are really only a handful of airports that
are certified to handle the A380 on an everyday basis. The A380 doesn't take up any more runway to take
off or land than, say, a 747, but they did have to make sure that they had
enough space between taxiways and runways, because the a380's
wingspan is simply so large and thus so wide. The size and economics did limit the marketing
power of the plane. While many of the US airlines did have seven,
four, seven, not a single one bought an A380. So the U.S. Airlines certainly gave the A380
consideration. But they concluded that the A380 just wasn't
right for them. For airlines with ultra long haul flights like
Dubai to Auckland, the A380 is a good fit. We need to acknowledge that this aircraft is there
to serve a sort of niche market legs between mega cities, highly congested airports with. Other carriers not seeing the importance of that
A380. That's absolutely depending on their network. But for us, we believe in the A380 and we still
do. What we've generally heard from airlines is that
when you can fill an A380, the unit costs as in the cost per seat are very
attractive. But of course, you know, consistently filling 550
seats is far more difficult than consistently filling 350 seat widebody. In the early 2000, when the A380 was being
developed, orders were already declining for its main competitor, the Boeing 747. The economics of four engine aircraft in general
are declining. You can fly A777 or 787 or A350 over, you know,
large bodies of water because those engines have become
so reliable. And in many cases, airlines don't want to have to
face the cost of overhauling four engines one day if they can get the same capability with two
engines. Comparing the A380 with a newer technology would
be unfair. The better option would always be that every
aircraft, every new aircraft that comes out right now is a bit is definitely more technologically
advanced than the previous versions. Same thing goes with the engines. Airbus made the decision to stop production in
2019, and the last plane rolled off the production line in 2021. Little by little, the order went down, and then we
came to the conclusion that there was no no case to continue producing this
plane. The economic lifespan of a widebody passenger jet
is about 24 years, and so far, the average retirement age of an A380
is 11.5 years. When the pandemic hit, the A380's future looked
uncertain. The pandemic forced all airlines to reexamine
everything about their businesses, including their fleets and route
networks, and some airlines concluded if they wanted to continue to operate the A380, they
would need to make substantial investments to their cabins, which they weren't sure they would
be able to pay off, and more. You know, that's why some carriers opted not to
bring their fleets back. Despite all the challenges, there's still a long
future for the A380. That aircraft has probably a little longer future
than even we thought surely some time ago. Passengers love it. The crews love it, and we will now very soon,
start to also upgrade the product in the A380 in business
class, which we wouldn't do if we expect the airplane to be grounded soon. Post-pandemic travel returned at a rapid pace
that, along with delivery delays, have many airlines turning back to their A380 fleet when
they thought they were previously retired. We have our retrofit program that we're currently
on of around $2 billion that we're spending on retrofitting our 120 aircrafts. 67 of them will be the A380. Congested airports and ultra long haul travel
aren't going away, either. Many of them selected this plane because it's a
very efficient plane to carry a big number of passengers between mega cities, and it's still
very efficient in terms of fuel burn per seat. And the plane is still popular among enthusiasts. The A380 has been a crowd puller, and it still is. While it was no longer viable to keep producing
the plane, Airbus still sees the A380 as a success and will continue to support the aircraft
for years to come. Many things that we learned from the A380 were
carried over to the A350, and many innovation that were decided at the time of
the A380 now are part of the A350. Dna and foundations. Airbus expects the A380 to be flying for the next
two decades, and is currently still being operated by ten airlines including Emirates,
Lufthansa, Etihad and British Airways. A majority of Boeing 747 are now cargo planes,
but that's not an option with the A380. There were cargo versions proposed, and both
Federal Express, Fedex and UPS had expressed interest. The conclusion was that the added strengthening
that would be required to the aircraft floors would be way too much and reduce the
viability of the aircraft. So we just landed and the flight was super smooth. Take off landing, cruising, not too many bumps,
boarding and deboarding did take a long time, but um, besides
that, everything went well. There are certainly people that think that Airbus
was chasing the largest aircraft, and others will say that it may have
come too early. We could maybe be facing the type of constrained
airport environment that they hypothesized, where an A380 could fit really
well. Its impressive engineering. A lot of credit deserves to be given to the
designers and engineers and others at Airbus that helped bring this airplane to
life. It's unfortunate. It just wasn't more of a
commercial success.
