There was also a structural problem: The A380 was designed as a family, as aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt explained to SPIEGEL, with a shorter version, a medium version and a long version. The variant currently in use is the shortest, the stretched A380 should have been able to hold up to 1000 passengers. The entire aircraft structure was designed for these dimensions. That is why the A380 is wider and heavier per seat than comparable machines. This ensures an increased consumption of kerosene. However, the XXL-A380 was never made. “There is no longer a rational reason to buy the A380,” says Großbongardt’s conclusion.
The A380 has never had any success in China or with US airlines – and that although smaller Airbus models are very popular there. Rivals inheriting the A380 include a smaller sibling, the A350 and the Boeing 777.
The A380 is “over” – says its probably biggest fan
Airbus owes the fact that the giant jet is still being manufactured to this day by the airline Emirates. The company from Dubai was the largest customer and secured the further construction with orders in 2018. But Emirates’ enthusiasm for flying is history too. The A380 is “over”, said the airline’s chief, Tim Clark, recently. The airline had previously reduced its orders and moved to smaller Airbus models. A380s that have already been ordered are to be delivered later, if possible. And now the company has announced that it intends to sell 46 of its super jumbos that have already been used.
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Emirates operates a total of 115 A380s, more than any other airline. The company actually owns around half of the jets. All others are only on loan and can be returned to the leasing companies relatively easily. Possibly, some observers argue, the announcement of a faster exit from the program is not quite as spectacular as it sounds: Emirates has been using the A380 since 2008, but always emphasizes the low age of the aircraft fleet. That is why the company had previously announced that it would part with 30 of the slowly aging giant airplanes by the middle of the decade. In the crisis, the previous plans would simply be implemented faster.
Will the giant jumbo become an auxiliary freighter?
His airline’s A380s “will not return for at least a year, maybe never again,” said Qatar Airways chief Akbar Al Baker. The corona pandemic is certainly not responsible for the end of the A380, but it will probably make the inevitable happen faster: “The A380 will come back, albeit later than most other aircraft types, and in much smaller numbers than before the corona crisis “says analyst Frank Netscher from Scope Analysis in Berlin in an interview with SPIEGEL. “Overall, the A380 will be the type of aircraft that comes back last and goes first.”
“In a post-corona world , it will take years for flight demand to return to pre-crisis levels,” says Netscher. “Accordingly, there are too many planes, and only those will be flown that make economic sense even with lower load factors. This does not include the A380.” The giant jet would offer space to free many seats for reasons of infection protection. But then it would be even more uneconomical.
At the same time, an idea is pursued in the crisis that has been occupying the experts for many years: Wouldn’t the huge A380 be an interesting cargo plane? Airbus had advanced such a project under the name A380F and, among other things, excited the logistics giants FedEx and UPS for it. The companies then dropped their plans due to delays in implementing the project.
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The planned A380F model – but only in a graphic representation
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The model for a cargo A380 could be the Boeing 747. This aircraft has already been retired by many airlines for passenger traffic, especially in the USA . But it is still often used for freight transport.
A complete conversion of a former passenger plane to a freighter, such as that offered by the Airbus subsidiary Elbe-Flugzeugwerke in Dresden for smaller jets such as the A320 or A330, is complex and expensive. Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg is therefore currently dealing with the question of how an A380 can be turned into a temporary auxiliary freighter with as little effort as possible. When asked by SPIEGEL, the company did not want to disclose for whom the work is currently being carried out. However, it is clear that, for example, no additional cargo door is installed in the aircraft. Instead, it is about the certification, at which points on the aircraft which loads could be accommodated.
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Container before loading into the cargo hold of an A380 (archive picture)
CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / REUTERS
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Whoever wants to use the A380 built for passenger transport as an auxiliary freighter will have a few problems with it: The current doors to the passenger area are intended for people, not for containers – which is quite small. And you have to get to the upper deck with cargo at all. In addition, for structural reasons, only little weight can be accommodated even when the seats are removed.
This may be possible for boxes with respirator masks, but it is a problem for many other purposes. “The A380 focuses on space, not payload. The aircraft type cannot carry the maximum payload required to make a profit,” said analyst Netscher.
In addition to the use of the Hi-Fly machine for the Corona aid, there was also another pure cargo flight of the A380: At the end of April, a super jumbo from Malaysia Airlines brought 26 tons of Chinese “e-commerce goods” from Kuala Lumpur to London . However, only the cargo hold was used. The huge passenger cabin remained empty.
Icon: The mirror
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