Airbus could abandon A380 superjumbo amid lacklustre sales
PARIS — Airbus said Monday it will stop making the costly A380 superjumbo if it can’t strike a long-term deal with the airline Emirates for a steady supply of the planes.
Abandoning the A380 would be a disappointing defeat for Airbus, which spent many years and many billions developing the double-decker behemoth, even as skeptics questioned the whether it could generate enough demand to justify its cost and the bigger runways it requires.
Airbus chief salesman John Leahy told reporters Monday, when Airbus otherwise reported a record number of overall plane deliveries for 2017, that “if we can’t work out a deal with Emirates, there is no choice but to shut down the program.”
He said the Dubai-based airline is “the only one who has the ability” to commit to a minimum of six planes a year for a minimum of eight to 10 years, which Airbus needs to make the program viable.