Si le programme A380 prend fin, il y a encore un espoir qu’un marché d’occasion se développe pour le superjumbo d’Airbus.
We won’t go into detail about the termination of the A380 program. It’s not that the device was a technological failure, far from it, it just arrived at the worst time in a market that was changing. Too early? Too late? Time will tell, but it won’t make much difference to its future. As sad as it is, the end of the A380 was inevitable for reasons we explained long ago.
Hifly would buy more used A380s
More regrettable was the absence of a second-hand market. Apart from the wet-lease company Hifly, which bought an aircraft retired by Singapore Airlines, buyers are not rushing to the door while a significant number of A380s will be on the second-hand market in the coming years.
But, not scared by its first experience with the A380 (it has only flown 4 times and is immobilized following a collision with a gateway at Roissy), Hifly should acquire other A380s that it intends to operate as charters.
The aircraft offers interesting capacities in certain specific contexts (such as pilgrimages, a market for which Malaysia will use its A380s) and in the majority of cases luxurious configurations, as many airlines have made them their flagship aircraft. Getting an A380 Singapore Airlines equipped with a very nice product in first, business or economy to make charter, it can be worse…
The A380, a “one shot” aircraft
But will it be enough? What we see at Hifly and Malaysia in the “conversion” of the A380 is that it is more a “one shot” aircraft, for specific and punctual uses. Not sure that this is enough to give a second life to all the devices that will gradually end up on the market.
The latest rumor is that British Airways is considering used A380s to replace its B747s, among others. Here the reason is quite different. In addition to knowing the aircraft well, of which it owns 12, it must deal with the saturation of Heathrow. And when, due to a lack of available slots, it is not possible to increase the number of flights, then the size of the aircraft is increased.
Photo : A380 Hifly by Skycolors via shutterstock
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