The story of the Airbus A380 in many ways is a story of Emirates . Emirates invested heavily in the A380, purchasing over half of the superjumbos produced, and continues to operate around half of the world's A380s. Emirates is expected to operate some 57,531 flights with its A380s in 2024 (10x more than the next airline).
While the A380 turned out something of a white elephant, was it actually a success for Emirates? A white elephant before entering service There were concerns that the A380 would be a white elephant before it entered service in 2007. Writing in 2006, the Independent wrote, " Today, [the A380's] maker, Airbus, will seek to reassure the world that the biggest airliner ever to grace the skies will be a commercial success when it enters service..
. By now the A380 should have been in commercial service for the best part of a year. Instead, it is running two years late, leading some to describe it as aviation's latest white elephant.
" Airbus A380 timeline: 1988: Studies started 1990: Project announced 2005: First prototype unveiled/first flight 2007: Entered service 2020: COVID-19 and accelerated A380 retirements 2021: Final A380 delivered As history would have it, the A380 remained in production until 2021 with 251 production models built. That debate about it being a white elephant never went away. Eventually, the market turned against it, and it was indeed seen as a white elephant leading to a drop off in orders and its cancelation.
In 2019, Reuters ran an arti.
