The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airlinermanufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It is the world’s largest passenger airliner and, due to its size, many airports have had to upgrade their facilities to properly accommodate it. Initially namedAirbus A3XX, the aircraft was designed to challenge Boeing’s monopoly in the large-aircraft market; the A380 made its first flight on 27 April 2005 and began commercial service in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines.

The A380’s upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, with a width equivalent to a wide-body aircraft. This allows for an A380-800’s cabin with 478 square metres (5,145. 1 sq ft) of floor space; 49% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 321 square metres (3,455. 2 sq ft), and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-classconfiguration or up to 853 people in all-economy class configurations.

The A380-800 has a design range of 15,400 kilometres (8,300 nmi; 9,600 mi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong, and a cruising speed ofMach 0. 85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude). A380 MSN001 about to land after itsmaiden flight The first completed A380 at the “A380 Reveal” event held in Toulouse, France, 18 January 2005 Dubbed the Superjumbo by the media[76] the first aircraft, MSN003, (registered as 9V-SKA) was delivered to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered service on 25 October 2007 with flight number SQ380 between Singapore and Sydney. 9][77] Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction paying between $560 and $100,380. [78] Two months later, Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng stated the A380 was performing better than both the airline and Airbus had anticipated, burning 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline’s 747-400 fleet. [79] Emirates’ Tim Clark claims that the A380 is more fuel economic at Mach 0. 86 than at 0. 83. [80] A Singapore Airlines A380 lines up for take-off at Zürich Airport

Emirates was the second airline to receive the A380 and commenced services betweenDubai and New York in August 2008. [81][82] Qantas followed on 19 September 2008, starting flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles in October 2008. [83] By the end of 2008, 890,000 passengers had flown on 2,200 flights totalling 21,000 hours. [84] In February 2009 the one millionth passenger was flown with Singapore Airlines[85] and by May of that year 1,500,000 passengers had flown on 4,200 flights totalling 41,000 hours. 86]Air France received its first A380 in October 2009. [87][88] Lufthansa received its first A380 in May 2010. [89] By July 2010, the 31 A380s then in service had transported 6 million passengers on 17,000 flights totalling over 156,000 hours between 20 international destinations In 2006, industry analysts Philip Lawrence of the Aerospace Research Centre in Bristol and Richard Aboulafia of the consulting Teal Group in Fairfax anticipated 880 and 400 A380 sales respectively by 2025. 19]

According to Lawrence, parallel to the design of the A380, Airbus conducted the most extensive and thorough market analysis of commercial aviation ever undertaken, justifying its VLA (very large aircraft, those with more than 400 seats) plans,[19] while according to Aboulafia, the rise of mid-size aircraft and market fragmentation reduced VLAs to niche market status, making such plans unjustified. [19] The two analysts’ market forecasts differed in the incorporation of spoke-hub and point-to-point models. 19] In 2007, Airbus estimated a demand for 1,283 passenger planes in the VLA category for the next 20 years if airport congestion remains at the current level. According to this estimate, demand could reach up to 1,771 VLAs if congestion increases. Most of this demand will be due to the urbanisation and rapid economic growth in Asia. [219] The A380 will be used on relatively few routes, between the most saturated airports. Airbus also estimates a demand for 415 freighters in the category 120-tonne plus.

Boeing, which offers the only competition in that class, the 747-8, estimates the demand for passenger VLAs at 590 and that for freighter VLAs at 370 for the period 2007–2026. [220] At one time the A380 was considered as a potential replacement for the existing Boeing VC-25 serving as Air Force One,[221][222] but in January 2009 EADS declared that they were not going to bid for the contract, as assembling only three planes in the US would not make financial .

The break-even for the A380 was initially supposed to be reached by selling 270 units, but due to the delays and the falling exchange rate of the US dollar, it increased to 420 units. [49] In 2010, EADS CFO Hans Peter Ring said that break-even (on the aircraft that are delivered) could be achieved by 2015, despite the delays; there should be around 200 deliveries by that time, on current projections. [224] In 2012, Airbus clarified that in 2015, production costs to build the aircraft would be less than the sales price. 75] As of March 2010 the average list price of an A380 was US$ 375. 3 million (about €261 million or £229 million), depending on equipment installed. [225] As of July 2012 this list price was US$ 390 million, but negotiated discounts made the actual prices much lower, and industry experts questioned whether the A380 project would ever pay for itself. Prototype at the 2005 Paris Air Show Airbus A380 on MAKS 2011, Russia.