Airbus remains upbeat on jet’s future
KUALA LUMPUR: Airbus is confident that the double-decker superjumbo A380 will have a strong foothold in the aviation industry despite some pessimistic views.
The European airframe maker said it had received 317 orders from 18 customers globally for the A380, with additional 36 orders from the Dubai-based airline Emirates.
“We are confident of the strong future for the aircraft, not only for premium scheduled services but also for new applications, including charter services and low cost operations,” an Airbus spokesman told NST Business via email.
Some 190 million passengers have flown on A380s since the plane’s entry into service in October 2007.
There are currently 221 A380s being operated by 13 airlines, including Air France, British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines.
The A380 fleet makes more than 300 flights per day from more than 120 routes to 60 destinations. A total of 240 airports are able to accommodate the A380 globally.
“The A380 has been turning heads for a decade. It is a gamechanger that symbolises innovation in the aerospace industry and marks a turning point for Airbus and its operators.
“With passenger traffic doubling every 15 years, the A380 is the only efficient solution for sustainable growth,” said the spokesperson.
Airbus said the A380 would help decongest airports amid the growing number of high-volume, high-traffic and heavily-travelled routes.
“Some 99 per cent of future long-haul traffic will be between mega cities, many in the AsiaPacific region. Today, 54 per cent of A380 capacity is from/to/within the Asia-Pacific region, the fastest growing market in the world, and 18 per cent is from regional flights within Asia,” he said.
Passengers also love the A380 as it offers more choices, comfort and incomparable travel experience with a quiet and smooth ride.
Airbus commercial aircraft president Fabrice Brégier said the company was facing a commercial challenge, which had prompted its production to be ramped down to a delivery trajectory of 12 units this year.
“We can have an industrially robust process to deliver down to six aircraft a year.
“The challenge for us is to at least maintain this level of industrial output in the years to come before taking the advantage of the replacement of the A380 and potentially new markets,” said Bregier at a teleconference on Airbus’ Commercial Aircraft deliveries for 2017 recently.
Airbus head of sales John Leahy said there was always a need for bigger aircraft as airports would be congested due to increased passenger traffic.
He said Airbus was currently talking to a few key airlines on the planemaker’s plans to reduce its production rate to between six and eight units annually.
“We can sell it to that level going forward until the market really picks up. We would like to see it back to about 25 units annually. But that would take a few more years from now,” he said.
Meanwhile, Airbus has increased the average list prices of its aircraft by two per cent across the product line, effective January 1.
“Our new 2018 pricing reflects Airbus’ continuous investments in its aircraft programmes to maximise their value for our customers’ satisfaction,” said Leahy.
Aviation experts said the move would not impact Airbus’ plane sales or orders as “nobody pays list prices”.
Each airline will get discounts depending on how many planes it orders.
The price was negotiated when an airline made an order and big discounts were the norm, they said.