I read an article about the Airbus A380 (Let’s call it an A380 from now on) and why the production of A380s ended. The article cited 2 reasons for end of production of A380s: Point-to-point transit is more common in aviation nowadays, which didn’t make sense for me because, in reality, most airlines (With the exception of some budget airlines) use hub-and-spoke transit instead; And the fact that the A380 is a quadjet, which makes because twinjets are cheaper for airlines and ETOPS exist. With both the A380 and the Boeing 747 out of production, twinjets (The Airbus A350 and the Boeing 777X in particular) have taken over and they sadly, however, have only one deck, and that explains the title question. Sorry for the post being long
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This post seems like a weird AI generated one. For someone who doesn’t know a lot about jets you’re using some very specific language, and weirdly structured sentences.
If you’re talking about hub and spoke operations, ETOPS, twin jets etc, you’d have some understanding as to why planes like the 747 and A380 aren’t being actively developed right now.
If you’re genuine, and just copying a lot of words out of an article which you have a basic understanding of, and didn’t provide an answer to your question despite mentioning the A350, 777X. One of the answers is: Hub and spoke models will still continue to be important, not everyone wants to sit in economy for 20hours to fly to a destination. However, some routes have demand for planes that can fly that distance.
The trade off being – to fly that far you need an efficient plane. Typically size and fuel usage are your limiting factors. The A350, and 787 primarily are the planes which will fill those ultra long haul routes. They don’t fit as many people, but they have engines that can carry those planes the distance required with baggage.
Previously the A380, and 747 had to leave luggage behind on some routes when flying winds weren’t ideal. Dallas to Sydney for example couldn’t fly full, and even then consistently had to leave bags behind to ensure it had enough fuel for safety.
ETOPS is a thing which Qantas are working with regulators on for their Sydney to New York routes, by finding alternative solutions to the requirements to maintain safety but while being able to exceed the normal things.
Unfortunately, despite great demand now and pleas from carriers like Emirates for an A380neo (new engine option). Airbus won’t make one citing costs. The A380, is an absolute favourite amongst flyers but isn’t great for efficiency, as the engines it launched with were just before some big advances. A A380 today would have a great chance at being cost competitive, but to do so requires a lot of investment that makes that not viable for Airbus.
That at least is my understanding. Some bits may be outdated.
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