I'm going to be talking about the A380 today. According to the Airbus website, it is the world's largest aircraft and can hold 525 passengers in a normal seating (1st class, business class and economy class,) and because it has an upper deck it provides more than 50% more floor surface than the competition. The A380 will come in two different versions, one for airlines (A380-800,) and one for cargo (A380F). For this blog I'm going to looking at the A380-800.
The A380 has a range of 8,300 nm...thats over 9500 miles and has a fuel capacity of 85,472 gallons.
Airbus projects that in the first 3 years 15 million passengers will have flown the A380. Their have been a total of 236 orders of the A380 and 57 deliveries to 6 airlines; Emirates, Singapore airlines, Qantas, Lufthansa, Air France, and Korean Air.
The bar graph does a good job showing which airlines are in right now and whose in for the future of the A380.
In 1988 a few Airbus engineers worked to break the monopoly set by Boeing. Airbus and Boeing both stated reseach together on "very large aircraft" in 1994 and that ended farily quicky. And in 1999 Airbus designers decided it was time to bring the Airbus to life, The project cost them about 10 billion dollars to complete.
I believe the A380 will have a postive effect on the manufacturs of airbus. I mean the unit cost of one complete A380 is around 375 million dollars, so imagine selling 200-300 of these. It will bring money to company. As far as Boeing goes, I think they ran into competition and I can't wait to see the new 787. But honestly, their's no doubt Boeing has lost money because of Airbus. Finally as a future manager in the industry I can't wait to see the income the new planes bring in. I think with these two companies competing for service with airlines, it will bring out the best of both companies (hence new airplanes).
You are absolutely correct that Airbus has taken some market share away from Boeing, and will continue to do so. The A380 is going to hurt Boeing for many reasons namely because it has been in service for several years while Boeing was still working out their issues to get it's 787 of the press.
ReplyDeleteGood information, and I like the graph showing deliveries. I am curious to see what Emirates does with such a large order and how that impacts their business. Interesting - no US passenger carriers have orders.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that both planes will positively impact the industry worldwide. And as Ms. Wall mentioned, it’s interesting that no US carriers have orders. What this makes me feel is that although one of the planes is American, it still seems that the US carriers are hesitant to make their minds yet to buy some! I believe jumping in and swap spots in the waiting line would not be a big deal for US carriers once they realize that one of the planes or both is/are sure profitable. Buying somebody’s spot and do replacements is not a new thing in the industry. Some deals like have happened in the past and will keep taking place as long as a big market like the US is testing the water!
ReplyDeleteThe A380 is selling for $375 million, but I wonder how much in costs to make. I think that with so many orders still to fill, Airbus better keep on schedule as to lose customers and have a bunch on half planes not being paid for.
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