TOULOUSE: The head of Airbus said yesterday that the aircraft manufacturer had no intention to stop making the A380, saying the super jumbo had a “bright future” despite a lack of orders this year.
The idea of stopping production of the A380 is “just crazy”, Fabrice Bregier said. He admitted however: “Clearly our challenge is to get more customers”, while insisting that the Airbus order book was “largely filled”.
The remarks came after an official at parent company Airbus Group suggested that the A380 would be wound down by 2018 because of a lack of orders. Airbus, which aimed to sell 30 A380s and deliver the same number this year, met the delivery goal but not the sales target.
The CEO said the trend was towards bigger planes like the A380 because global air traffic is expected to double every 15 years.
He said one option for making the plane more attractive was to replace the engines with more fuel-efficient ones such as those used in the mid-range A320neo (new engine option) and long-haul A330neo. AFP
