Looking at a plane this enormous, it felt a miracle that it could fly. And not only fly but soar so quietly, especially compared with the Boeing 747 it was designed to supersede and outclass. Passengers love it, but the A380 never completely took off among the airline buyers.

The announcement from Airbus that the final curtain will come down on the A380’s pan-European production line comes after years of speculation that the superjumbo was doomed. Orders had dried up in a risk-averse airline industry, whose economics and route networks were altered just at the wrong moment for the A380.

Airbus had nosed ahead of the pack in producing a plane that was built with lighter materials and was much more fuel-efficient, and potentially offered big savings and profits on routes where airlines could guarantee to load hundreds of passengers on every flight. It looked an ideal solution for the packed transatlantic corridors, where airlines would compete for scarce and expensive slots at intercontinental hubs such as Heathrow.

Even as the first A380 entered service in 2007, however, orders were piling up for a different plane still in the pipeline from rival Boeing. The 787 Dreamliner could fly a similar range on only two engines. This upstart took the use of lightweight composite materials a leap further and would need roughly half the number of passengers, 250 to 300 rather than the typical 550 on an A380, to make long-haul flights economically viable.

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. Photograph: Eric Schultz/AP

The hub and spokes model of aviation, in which airlines feed in passengers from connecting flights, and the bigger the long-haul plane the better, was being challenged. Low-cost aviation had given secondary airports fresh life, and passengers were increasingly used to direct, point-to-point flying. The need for Airbus’s expensive double-decker, its wings so wide that airport stands and equipment had to be remodelled to accommodate it, was fading.

The doubts escalated when so few customers were willing to take a punt on a plane whose future was in question. Only one airline, Emirates, appeared fully enamoured, placing giant orders that single-handedly sustained the A380 manufacturing programme. Few others had the deep pockets of the booming Gulf carrier, or customers rich enough to merit turning part of the plane’s spacious interior into a shower spa suite.

British Airways talked up the plane’s qualities but talked down the price. The Australian carrier, Qantas, was stung by teething problems as an early adopter, stalled on an order made in 2006 and finally cancelled it last week. Even Air France cut back on the plane assembled by its compatriots in Toulouse.

The most ominous sign was the news that two of the first A380s, still in their infancy in aircraft years, were being parked in the Pyrenees and stripped for parts. The aircraft had gone from great birds of the sky to mere organ donors in a decade. It was a more economical solution for their owner, the German leasing firm Dr Peters, than trying to hire them out to unwilling airlines.

When Emirates finally decided enough was enough, seeking to convert its order to newer, smaller models, it was game over. Few can blame Airbus for wanting to cling on and push this incredible plane, whose virtues are unquestioned. But the world it was built for has not materialised as Airbus had hoped.



