Asia Pacific holds key to future of A380 – Airbus
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The Asia Pacific region holds the key to the future success of the A380 aircraft, Airbus has said.
Speaking at the Singapore Airshow this week, the European planemaker said that the sharp rise in air passenger traffic expected in Asia Pacific in the coming years would make the A380 – the world’s largest passenger aircraft – an important asset for the region’s airlines.
“While airline passenger traffic doubles worldwide every 15 years, such a doubling occurs each 10 years in Asia, so A380’s market importance will continue as airlines respond to the growing demand,” explained David Dufrenois, head of the A380 market development platform.
Singapore Airlines was the launch customer for the A380 back in 2007, and currently almost half of the world’s A380 operators are based in the Asia Pacific region. And tellingly, all of the world’s A380 operators fly their double-decker jets to destinations in Asia Pacific.
Other Asia Pacific-based A380 operators include Asiana Airlines, China Southern, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas and Thai Airways, and ANA recently became the newest customer for the aircraft, ordering three A380s.
Dufrenois predicted that the A380 could be used in future for Hajj pilgrimage flights connecting Southeast Asia’s largest Muslim populations with Saudi Arabia, as well as for more flights to, from and within the world’s most populous countries, India and China.
“We expect to see more and more A380 flights for China, both into the country and within its borders, driven by air traffic growth,” he said.
Airbus has so far taken orders for 319 A380s, 180 of which have been delivered. But Emirates, which operates by far the largest A380 fleet in the world, accounts for 44% of the total orders and aircraft currently in service.
Airbus said it believes that there is still a large market for the A380, with its latest market outlook predicting the need for more than 720 “very large aircraft”, like the A380, within Asia Pacific over the next 20 years.
Last year the A380 project broke even for the first time, and Airbus says it is hoping for a similar result in 2016.
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