Editing Airbus A380 (section)

===End of production===
[[File:Airbus A380 A6-EVS on final approach to Heathrow, 19 November 2022.jpg|thumb|A6-EVS, the last A380 to roll off the production line at Toulouse, photographed at [[Heathrow Airport]] on 19 November 2022. This aircraft, serial number 272, entered service with Emirates on 16 December 2021.{{Cn|date=August 2024}}]]

In February 2019, Airbus announced it would end A380 production by 2021, after its main customer, Emirates, agreed to drop an order for 39 of the aircraft, replacing it with 40 [[A330-900]]s and 30 [[A350-900]]s.<ref name=Airbus14feb2019/> At the time of the announcement, Airbus had 17 more A380s on its order book to complete before closing the production line{{snd}}14 for Emirates and three for [[All Nippon Airways]]{{snd}}taking the total number of expected deliveries of the aircraft type to 251.<ref name="cnn20190214">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/14/business/a380-airbus-news-emirates/index.html|title=End of the superjumbo: Airbus is giving up on the A380|author=Jethro Mullen and Charles Riley|website=CNN|date=14 February 2019|access-date=2019-02-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Gwyn Topham |title=Passengers love Airbus A380 but it never fully took off with buyers |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/14/passengers-love-airbus-a380-but-it-never-fully-took-off-with-buyers |website=[[The Guardian]] |date=14 February 2019}}</ref><!-- Changes that do NOT match the official Airbus monthly orders and deliveries will be removed. Please see discussion, thanks! ----> Airbus would have needed more than $90&nbsp;million profit from the sale of each aircraft to cover the estimated $25&nbsp;billion development cost of the programme. However, the $445&nbsp;million price tag of each aircraft was not sufficient to even cover the production cost. With orders decreasing, the decision was made to cease production.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/12/27/is-airbus-finally-ready-to-shut-down-a380-production/#23c0325b59c6 Is Airbus Finally Ready To Shut Down A380 Production?] (Forbes, by Michael Goldstein, 27 December 2017)<br />Quote:<br />"...the A380 has been a consistent money-loser for Airbus. "<br />"The estimated $20 to $25 billion in research and development costs of the A380 have long since been written off."</ref><ref>{{YouTube|id=Xb5PVumzFXw|t=1m23s|title=Airbus Considers Ditching A380 in 2018 as Buyers Lag}} (Bloomberg, posted to YouTube on 11 December 2014)<br />Quote:<br />"...the A380...might not survive beyond 2018."</ref> Enders stated on 14 February 2019, "If you have a product that nobody wants anymore, or you can sell only below production cost, you have to stop it."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i5AGAkZRdk Airbus CEO says stopping A380 production is the "right decision"] (AFP News, posted to YouTube on 14 February 2019)</ref>

One reason that the A380 did not achieve commercial viability for Airbus has been attributed to its extremely large capacity being optimised for a [[spoke–hub distribution paradigm|hub-and-spoke]] system, which was projected by Airbus to be thriving when the programme was conceived. However, airlines underwent a fundamental transition to a [[point-to-point transit|point-to-point]] system, which gets customers to their destination in one flight instead of two or three. The massive scale of the A380 design was able to achieve a very low cost for passenger seat-distance, but efficiency within the hub-and-spoke paradigm was not able to overcome the efficiency of fewer flights required in the point-to-point system. Specifically, US based carriers had been using a multihub strategy, which justified the need for only a handful of VLAs (''very large aircraft'' with more than 400 seats) such as the A380, and having too few VLAs meant that they could not achieve economy of scale to spread out the enormous fixed cost of the VLA support infrastructure.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-exec-reveals-why-company-doesnt-use-airbus-a380-2019-4 |title= An American Airlines VP reveals why the Airbus A380 doesn't work for the world's biggest airline|website= [[Business Insider]]}}</ref> Consequently, orders for VLAs slowed in the mid 2010s, as widebody twin jets now offer similar range and greater fuel efficiency, giving airlines more flexibility at a lower upfront cost.<ref>"[http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/asian-airlines-changing-presence-at-london-heathrow-pt-1-cathay-and-sia-increase-capacity-96950 Asian Airlines' changing presence at London Heathrow]", Centre for Aviation, 13 February 2013.</ref><ref name=guangzhou>"[http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/china-southerns-a380-problems-may-not-be-solved-by-possible-air-china-partnership-103063 China Southern's A380 problems may not be solved by possible Air China partnership]", CAPA: Centre for Aviation, 2 April 2013.</ref><ref name=spar>Sparaco, Pierre. "[http://aviationweek.com/awin/opinion-mega-transports-hobbled-their-size Opinion: Mega-Transports Hobbled By Their Size] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710190249/http://aviationweek.com/awin/opinion-mega-transports-hobbled-their-size |date=10 July 2015 }}" ''[[Aviation Week & Space Technology]]'', 3 March 2014</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title= United Airlines does not see a fit for Airbus A380 |url= https://www.reuters.com/article/united-airlines-fleet-idUSL1N0YQ00Z20150604 |work= Reuters |date= 4 June 2015 |last= Dastin |first= Jeffrey |access-date= 30 June 2017 |archive-date= 17 October 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151017020432/http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/04/united-airlines-fleet-idUSL1N0YQ00Z20150604 |url-status= live}}</ref>

On 25 September 2020, Airbus completed assembly of the final A380 fuselage. Nine aircraft remained to be delivered (eight for Emirates, one for All Nippon Airways) and production operations continued to finish those aircraft. On 17 March 2021, the final Airbus A380 (manufacturing serial number 272) made its maiden flight from Toulouse to Hamburg for cabin outfitting,<ref name="CNN20210318">{{Cite news|last=O'Hare|first=Maureen|date=2021-03-18|title=The final Airbus A380 superjumbo makes its first flight|url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/final-airbus-a380-first-flight/index.html|access-date=2021-03-19|work=CNN}}</ref> before being delivered to Emirates on 16 December 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Francesca Street|title=The last ever A380 superjumbo is delivered to Emirates|url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/last-a380-emirates/index.html|access-date=2021-12-28|website=CNN|date=16 December 2021}}</ref><ref name=BBCLastA380>{{cite news |title=A380: Last of the superjumbos handed to new owner |work=BBC News |date=16 December 2021 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59667835 |access-date=16 December 2021}}</ref>