Airbus weighing future of A380

PARIS – The future of the largest airliner in the world, the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet, was a hot topic at the Paris Air Show this week.

Some observers question whether the slow-selling flagship airplane even has a secure future. Airbus gave no definitive answers in Paris, but did reveal it’s considering whether to put new engines on the double-decker airplane and whether to make it even bigger.

Airbus is weighing a stretch of the A380 fuselage, CEO Fabrice Brigier said at the air show. That could add as many as 100 additional seats to the current 525 or so in current configurations. But Brigier declined to specify when he might arrive at a firm decision on this so-called A380neo.

Tim Clark, CEO of Gulf carrier Emirates, which is by far the most important A380 customer with 61 of the massive jets in service and another 79 on order, is pressuring Airbus to go ahead with the bigger jet.

“If Airbus built the neo, we would not only replace the whole (A380) fleet (with A380neos), we’d add incremental units,” Clark said.

Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst with the Teal Group, suggested going forward with the A380neo would be throwing good money after bad.

“Well-run companies do not launch products for one customer,” he said.

He said while Airbus and Boeing currently are having some problems bridging the sales gaps between their models and forthcoming replacements – such as Boeing’s 777 and the 777X – the sales gap between an A380 and an A380neo would be “an unbridgeable chasm.”