Airbus bids adieu to A380 model with one last flight

Record ID: 1559102

  • Title: Airbus bids adieu to A380 model with one last flight
  • Date: 26th June 2020
  • Summary: ROISSY-EN-FRANCE, FRANCE (FILE - MAY 25, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AIR FRANCE A380 PLANES AT AIRPORT
  • Embargoed: 10th July 2020 16:54
  • Keywords: Air France Airbus A380 Paris airlines aviation last flight plane enthusiast
  • Location: TREMBLAY-EN-FRANCE, LE BOURGET, L'ISLE JOURDAIN, LEVIGNAC AND ROISSY-EN-FRANCE, FRANCE / IN AIR
  • City: TREMBLAY-EN-FRANCE, LE BOURGET, L'ISLE JOURDAIN, LEVIGNAC AND ROISSY-EN-FRANCE, FRANCE / IN AIR
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Company News Markets,Economic Events
  • Reuters ID: LVA007CK0CQBR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Air France bade the final farewell to its A380 superjumbo on Friday (June 26) with a final flight from Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris.
    Dozens of people gathered outside the airport to witness the Air France jet take off one last time before landing back at the airport later in the afternoon.
    Faced with weak sales of the four-engined behemoth, beaten on efficiency by smaller jets like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787, Airbus announced a halt to production of the huge plane last year.
    Airbus still has record orders for smaller jets, but the A380 is winding down just as Europe's aerospace capital faces wider job pressures due to the coronavirus crisis.
    Plane fan Brigitte Zilber watched wistfully as the plane lifted took off.
    The 47-year-old rail worker has been saving up since childhood to travel to New York City on the world's fanciest aircraft. She first targeted riding on the Concorde, but when the jet was retired in 2003, she set her sights on the A380 - a goal that, now, might never happen.
    Two weeks ago, the last convoy of trucks carrying three fuselage sections squeezed through the rural village of Levignac on their way to Toulouse, where the final superjumbo will be assembled for another airline before the model ends production in 2021, just 14 years after entering service.
    Airbus had bet billions on its vision of 555-seater jets. And without the A380, executives argued, Airbus would not have been able to knit a consortium of France, Germany, Britain and Spain into one European entity.
    A380 industrial problems forced Airbus to learn tough lessons, which helped the company build the A350 broadly on time, with few hitches.
    (Production: Noemie Olive, Ardee Napolitano)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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