The long-range Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aircraft in the world. Featuring two full length decks, it can fly 14,800 kilometres, carrying up to 853 passengers. Current operators have between 379 and 615 seats on board, with most seating around 500.
First flying on 27 April 2005, it took another two and half years to enter airline service. Singapore Airlines operated the first passenger flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney.
Airbus A380 Video
Following on from the last video about the supersonic Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde, we stay in Europe this time and look at the Airbus A380. This video is put together by Skyships Eng and runs for around 14 minutes. It covers everything you would want to know, with great footage to go with it.
Airbus A380s have four engines, either the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or the Engine Alliance GP7200. These plus extremely good sound proofing give the aircraft a very quiet passenger cabin. In fact, flying on board is a very smooth and pleasant experience all round.
Flying upstairs is perhaps even more comfortable than the lower deck, what with the extra storage space under the windows. Even economy class passengers get this when they have seats available upstairs, which is great.
Airlines fitted out the Airbus A380 with showers, bars, lounges, a multimedia gallery and more making it the most luxurious aircraft in the sky. As long as you are flying in first class or business class of course!
Airbus A380 Operators
There were just 14 airlines in the world that operated the Airbus A380. All are very well known global carriers, which is not at all surprising considering the US$445.6 million price tag for each aircraft.
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- Launch customer Singapore Airlines took 24 aircraft eventually
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- Emirates is by far the largest operator of the aircraft
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- Qantas uses their 12 on flights to the USA and Europe
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- Air France have retired their 10 effective May 2020
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- Lufthansa ordered 14 from Airbus
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- Korean Air have 10 with a lovely Celestial Bar on board
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- China Southern are the only Chinese operator, with five
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- Malaysia Airlines have six and they have been trying to offload them for a long time
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- Thai Airways also have six
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- British Airways took delivery of 12 examples
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- Korea’s Asiana have six
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- Qatar Airways have ten in the fleet
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- Etihad have 10, featuring the exclusive The Residence
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- Japan’s ANA have three for flights to Hawaii. The Blue is to represent Hawaiian Sky.
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- The Emerald Green one is to represent Hawaiian ocean
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- Finally, the Orange one is to represent the Hawaiian Sunset
Certain airlines like Virgin Atlantic, Skymark Airlines and Air Austral cancelled their orders. Lessors IFLC and Amedeo along with freight carriers FedEx and UPS did the same, while airlines like Kingfisher and Transaero went out of business before taking delivery.
Overall Thoughts
Emirates is the main operator of the Airbus A380, having ordered 123 aircraft. Considering just 251 have been sold, that accounts for almost half of the production run.
Airbus is no longer offering the jet for sale, and there are just a few left in production to deliver to Emirates. At the same time, airlines are finding the A380 is not suitable for economical travel in the 2020s.
Question marks hang over a lot of the rest of the fleet with airlines saying they will be out of service for a couple of years at least. While you will still have a chance to get on board the superjumbo, better do it sooner rather than later.
Have you flown on board an Airbus A380 before? What is it like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Singapore Airlines by Rolf Wallner on Airliners.net.
Emirates by Maarten Visser.
Qantas by aviationgirl788 on Instagram.
Air France A380 by Jakkrit Prasertwit on Airliners.net.
Lufthansa by N509FZ.
Korean Air by Aero Icarus.
China Southern by Allen Zhao on Airliners.net.
Malaysia Airlines by Alexander Beltyukov on Airliners.net.
Thai Airways by Toshi Aoki on Airliners.net.
British Airways by Mohd Imran A. G.
Asiana by lasta29.
Qatar Airways by Adrian Pingstone.
Etihad A380 by BriYYZ.
All Nippon Airways Blue by Masakatsu Ukon, Emerald Green by Perry Hoppe on Airliners.net and Orange by Airbus via FlightGlobal.
All images are via Wikimedia Commons apart from Qantas and Orange ANA.
I flew Lufthansa’s 380 from Frankfurt to SFO in late 2019 upstairs (something I never got to do on a 747). Very comfortable flight. The normal landing pattern into SFO is to fly northwest up San Francisco Bay to the runways. The plane always seemed higher off the water than usual and then I was concerned that we were not going to land as we were so far above the runway. Wen we touched down immediately thereafter I realized I had forgotten that being on the upper deck meant I was an additional 10-15 feet away from the runway.
Sounds like a great flight. Can totally understand you forgetting you were upstairs – it’s quite a distance from the ground when you think about it. Sounds like a nice memory – thanks for that! 🙂
This is one plane Im not sad to see retire. Its just larger than all other aircraft, but has no grace. It looks really ungainly, IMO.
The 747, now that was a graceful aircraft. Hell, the Antonov 124 & 224 look graceful and eager to fly. The A380 looks like someone shoved a blower up the bum of an A320 and turned it on. 🙂
Engineering wise, theres also not a lot to commend it either. It cant successfully be converted to cargo ops, unlike the 747.
Maybe Im just a grump when it comes to the 380.
Hahahaha! I will agree with you that it’s completely terrible in the looks department, but extremely comfortable to fly on! A lot of people would agree with you on the porky old A380 🙂
Sadly never flown on on of them. And looks like that will just get harder as time goes by. My last foreign trip was 7 years back, and i made sure I flew 747 all the way. AI, BA, LH. Covered all three 747-400 s
Oh very nice indeed! I’m sure you’ll get an A380 someday!
The last true great marvel. The original 707, the Concorde, the 747, and finally, the King of the skies – the glorious amazing A380. The last great innovation in the skies.
Let’s hope there’s something to take its place one day in the future. It would be a shame to see innovation suddenly stop, though I would say it will be a while until we see something new now.
I have flown the A380 multiple times with 6 different carriers, Qantas, Air France, Korean Air, China Southern, British Airways and Qatar
Flew first class on Qantas, British Airways and flew business class on Qantas, Air France, Korean Air, China Southern, British Airways and Qatar.
My best service experience was with Qatar and the best seat was in the Qantas first class.
But unfortunately will not be Seeing many A380 flying as they become more uneconomical.
Very nice that you’ve had so many different A380 experiences on a variety of airlines up the pointy end. Not surprised at Qatar having the best service, I’ve found that as well. It’s in a class of its own! Interesting, I’ve not done Qantas first class, that’s something of a bucket list item for me. Looking forward to it one day! Cross fingers we get some more A380 flights in future!
I’ve never flown one yet. A few years ago I had a ticket to Asia, including Korean Atlanta-Seoul on the A380 but the equipment was swapped a few months prior to a 777. I was really looking forward to flying one but what can you do? There was a similar situation with flying the A340 on Lufthansa that got swapped to a A350. The perils of booking award flights almost a year out I suppose.
I guess you’ve just been unlucky so far. It’s certain that the aircraft will remain in service for quite a number of years to come. The question is, with which airlines? Emirates for sure, but the rest could go either way. It’s annoying when you’re looking to fly on a certain aircraft and it’s swapped – that’s for sure! Thanks for the comment.