LONDON – On April 27, 2005, which is 17 years ago today, the Airbus A380 completed its first test flight.

Today’s date marked a significant milestone in placing the largest passenger airliner in the world up into the skies.

The next upcoming and significant date is October 25th, which marks 15 years since the aircraft entered service with Singapore Airlines.

Some Key Facts…

Production of the aircraft dates back to 2003 when the first three test aircraft were built to undergo rigorous testing in the skies.

The other 251 were built for customers who were lucky enough to receive this aircraft.

Emirates, is, of course, the largest customer of the A380, having received its 123rd and final A380 back in December 2021.

As of figures from December 2021 as well, the global A380 fleet has recorded over 800,000 flights across 7.3 million hours with no fatalities or hull losses, which is a remarkable feat.

Typically, the A380 has typical seating for 525 passengers but was certified to handle as many as 853 passengers if airlines chose to go down that route.

One negative fact about the A380 is that despite delivering 251 units of the type, Airbus never recouped the sheer $25bn investment that was placed on the project.

This was because it needed to generate 270 sales of the aircraft.

Development costs almost doubled throughout the development of the aircraft as well as experiencing difficulties with electrical wiring, which delayed entry into service.

Different Variations That Didn’t Make It To Customers…

Of course, with a big aircraft like the A380, Airbus wanted to push the boundaries further and create different variants of the type.

The European planemaker offered the A380 Freighter from June 2005 to January 2013, but never came to fruition, and did have customers but wouldn’t have been competitive enough.

If the A380 Freighter did ever enter service, it would have the largest payload capacity of any freighter aircraft bar the Antonov AN-225 Mriya.

During launch plans in December 2000, there was talk of what was known as a “Stretch” variant of the A380 which would sit 656 passengers instead of a 555-seat benchmark that was originally set.

Dubbed the A380-900, it would have been able to sit up to 900 passengers in a 1-class configuration as well as 650 in standard config.

Due to softened demand, this program was also axed.

Next, in slightly more modern times, Airbus was in talks with Emirates about introducing the A380neo but later lapsed, meaning Airbus had to suspend that as well due to there being “no business case” to do so.

Two years later, at the 2017 Paris Air Show, Airbus proposed the A380plus, with the mock-up winglets built and on display, offering an indication that Airbus may follow through on this.

If this aircraft had entered service, it would have offered 13% lower cost per seat, 4% better fuel efficiency, and less downtime.

Again, like with the A380plus, there was no demand as the market was slowly switching to narrowbody aircraft that could travel further.

The A380 Will Still Live On…

Whilst production has ceased on the A380 project, the aircraft will live on, especially in the second-hand market when customers wish to sell.

The same would apply to the Boeing 747, especially with the production of the -8 coming to a close as well.

What remains clear is that the A380 was an engineering marvel and that it was a good financial sacrifice for Airbus to make as it gave them brand coverage throughout the last 17 years and beyond.

That is what makes Airbus more unique than its rivals, in the fact that it can strive for excellence in projects like this. And that is what matters.