It seems Skymark Airlines is to pull away from the Airbus A380, abandoning its long haul international plans, with Airbus terminating the order from Skymark.
The first Skymark Airbus A380 – now not to be delivered – Image, Airbus.
Skymark had six Airbus A380s on their order book, with two already complete and were awaiting cabin-fitout.
And this is actually a big problem – not for Skymark, but for Airbus.
Sales of the Airbus A380 haven’t been moving fast at all if were honest, with no new airline ordering the super-jumbo for the past two years, and only Emirates going for a mega-order of 50 aircraft.
Other airlines that ordered, but failed to take up the A380s include Hong Kong Airlines (focusing on narrowbody and A330s), Kingfisher (which ended up being a very sad joke).
This also nixs the first operate of the Airbus A380 in Japan.
Combined with leasing issues of Amedeo, who have yet to place any of the twenty planes ordered, an Airbus A380 size problem is developing of who would want to use A380s?
Lets speculate.
All three of the big Middle Eastern Carriers (Emirates, Etihad and Qatar) either have A380s or have them coming online soon. In the expanded area, the only carrier that could probably take them on and turn a profit is Turkish Airlines based on their non-stop growth. Considering these are two A380s with Rolls Royce engines ready to roll, this could fit into Turkish Airlines expansion plans nicely.
Looking towards Europe, it would be difficult to consider what European airline would want them. Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways currently operate the Airbus A380, but with Lufthansa reducing its A380 order, British Airways still in the process of accepting its fleet of 12 aircraft (which in A380 fleet terms – isn’t a lot), and the Air France delivery pending, it could be difficult to place them.
It should be noted that since the engines fitted to the A380s are Rolls Royce Trent 900s, these could fit into either British Airways or a Lufthansa fleet. Interestingly, British Airways is still in the process of having its fleet delivered, so these “bargain” A380s may provide interest if enough crews are available to cover this aircraft.
Asia is probably the best hope when the Airbus A380 could turn to, with only one airline coming to mind – Singapore Airlines – who had some of the first A380s. These could be viewed as expansion and renewal aircraft.
As as for the Americas? I find it hard for any airline to consider the class unless they ram it full of seats, or charge through the nose for it – which is difficult to consider for some airlines.
Whilst the Airbus thought of Hub to Hub traffic is a good one, putting a lot of people in a big jet, and the distributing into different spokes, the strategy is only perfect on certain routes and certain hubs. As a result, the Airbus A380 works in well for Emirates (who funnel everyone via Dubai), British Airways (who funnel everyone through Heathrow), Singapore Airlines (Singapore). Multi-base carrier will suffer more as they cannot funnel that traffic appropriately.
There is a future for the Airbus A380, but airlines need to consider it carefully, and if they can afford it. With the lack of taste for super-large aircraft (you’ll remember there were no Airbus A380 or Boeing 747-8I orders during Farnborough 2014), airlines need to see if it truly the right fit for them, or if they can live without the capacity and use the large wide-bodied twin-jets to drive their futures…
Want to keep up with me at GhettoIFE? Join me either by signing up for my newsletter, or follow me on Twitter @GhettoIFE for when there are posts to the blog!
Also remember that as well as being part of BoardingArea, we’re also part of BoardingArea.eu, delivering frequent flyer news, miles and points to European readers!
It breaks my heart that the days of hopping on a 747 LAX-JFK are gone. I get the reason, but it’s still sad. I would love to see Delta replace the 744’s they’re using, but that’s not their m.o. (especially considering that they didn’t even buy them to begin with). A 767 just isn’t as special as a 747, and an A340 just isn’t as fun as an A380. Sigh…
I think we all know the economics sadly, be it in hardware, crew and fuel. And yes, I miss big jets (or overpowered jets) on short/medium hops.
I’m sure we’d all like our favourite airlines to buy a boatload of our wanted planes, fly them direct to destinations we need to go, however – commercial aviation is far from simple sadly as airlines have to fund these things.
Planes are expensive items to buy and keep flying. They’re even more expensive when they’re sat on the ground doing nothing.
Interesting article, Kevin.
Thanks – a little different than normal with me in analysis mode for once.
Nice post, Kevin! Interesting analysis and info.