The A380 might well be a hit with travelers, who enjoy the sheer size of the plane with its high ceilings, two full cabins and perks like business-class bars and first-class showers. 787 jet, an advantage he said is “lost on a lot of people.” Other airlines have long disagreed. “I have six A380s going into Heathrow at a 95% seat factor, and in the absence of a third runway, which I don’t think will happen, I shudder to think what’s going to happen.” Clark says that on popular routes, the A380’s economies of scale allow it to ferry the same number of passengers that would require two and a half trips by the smaller Boeing Co. “As you know, I’ve been bemoaning the absence of the A380,” Clark said. What’s more, tight capacity and the difficulty airports like London Heathrow are having adding runway capacity have only raised the need for large aircraft that can accommodate the masses, he said. “It’s a great big black hole that’s sucking in matter from everywhere,” Clark told journalists in Istanbul at the IATA annual meeting. With travel demand booming and more people upgrading to the front of the cabin, Clark says his A380s are full and that passengers are loving the experience. There’s still life for aircraft that size, Clark said Tuesday, likening the A380 to a Dyson vacuum cleaner that’s capable of gobbling up transfer capacity and redirecting it like no other jet. Dubai’s state-owned airline plans to fly its A380s into the next decade, and start retiring them in 2032, Clark said. After orders ran dry, the European planemaker killed the program in 2019 and handed over the last unit at the end of 2021 - to Emirates. Yet despite all the praise the long-serving executive has heaped on the plane over the years, Airbus SE could never make the numbers work. The president of Emirates Airline has long been the biggest cheerleader of the super-jumbo, highlighted by the fact that his airline operates more than 100 of the double-decker behemoths, far in excess of any rival. Tim Clark won’t let go of the Airbus A380. But the model always remained an exotic afterthought for most operators, who bought it in much smaller numbers than Airbus originally anticipated. Its biggest buyer remains a fan Tim Clark won’t let go of the Airbus A380.
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