Aviation
Commercial /
Asia
superjumbo
Emirates wants plane even bigger than the A380
Airbus A380
Emirates
CC BY-SA 2.0
Rafael Ramos
8/16/2022
Planes as big as the Airbus A380 don't make much sense these days for most airlines, mainly because of its four engines. However, Emirates CEO Tim Clark said having a plane even bigger than the A380 would be good for the company.
It's not the first time Tim Clark has said his company would have such a need.
Without a doubt, the Airbus A380 was a great plane. However, it did not achieve the commercial success that Airbus had hoped for.
The superjumbo was designed with the size it has to transport more passengers more efficiently in the scarce slots of the world's major hubs. However, demand was not what was expected, largely for the reason of using four engines, which made operating costs much higher.
Thus, the production of the plane has ended, with only 250 units produced worldwide. 118 jets of the model are from Emirates, with around 80 reactivated and flying regularly. The company's plans involve putting all jets back into service by mid-2023.
Unlike other airlines that own the A380, Clark does not want to part with the jet: “The notion that the A380 was a thing of the past has always been a little hard to swallow. I was laughing to myself, thinking, 'Wait and see.' We started flying the A380 to Heathrow six times a day in October last year and we haven't had a free seat on any of them since then."
In September 2021, before the end of production of the A380, Clark even asked Airbus not to “kill” the jumbo.
The CEO stated that demand for air travel has grown a lot, with further growth expected in the short term. In this way, even with the large A350s and Boeing 787s, if the A380 were taken out of the fleet altogether, the supply of seats would be suppressed, consequently increasing prices.
In addition, the Emirates chief spoke about the possibility of having a new, more efficient and economical A380, as today there are much more advanced technologies than at the time to build such an airplane.
However, the CEO acknowledges that it would be a long way off and that it won't happen anytime soon, as only Emirates seems interested in such a thing.
Gary Loparter/Unsplash
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Rafael Ramos
Aviation enthusiast from an early age, he had his first contacts with the area developing that good old habit of spending dozens of hours in front of the screens of Micrsoft Flight Simulator and other simulators. With a solid background in various technological areas, including engineering and chemistry, Rafael has rejoined aviation as editor and author of articles and materials on our portal, providing invaluable help to the dynamics and expansion of the website and the aeronautical community, bringing us the news and updates so indispensable for us to remain current in our area of operation.
   
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