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Airbus to cease production of A380 superjumbo by 2021

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Airbus is to cease production of the A380 once final deliveries are made to Emirates, which has reduced its order book from 162 to 123 superjumbos.

The airline, which today announced a $21.4bn heads-of-agreement with Airbus for 40 A330-900 and 30 A350-900 aircraft, will take delivery of 14 A380s over the next two years and will operate the aircraft into the 2030s.

“As a result of this decision we have no substantial A380 backlog and hence no basis to sustain production, despite all our sales efforts with other airlines in recent years. This leads to the end of A380 deliveries in 2021,” said Airbus CEO Tom Enders. “The A380 is not only an outstanding engineering and industrial achievement. Passengers all over the world love to fly on this great aircraft. Hence today’s announcement is painful for us and the A380 communities worldwide.”

Airbus said it will soon start discussions regarding the 3,000 to 3,500 positions potentially impacted by today’s announcement, which includes staff at Broughton, North Wales who assemble wings for Airbus commercial aircraft. The company added ‘the ongoing A320 ramp-up and the new widebody order from Emirates Airline will offer a significant number of internal mobility opportunities’.

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