When did the Airbus A380 come out?

Airbus began studying a very-large-capacity aircraft in the late 1980s to break the 747's monopoly in the segment above 400 seats. The program, known as the A3XX during development, was officially launched in December 2000 with orders from Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas and Air France, among others. The bet was a full double-deck aircraft to connect large congested airports, where every slot is valuable and aircraft size is the only way to grow. The parts are manufactured in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and France and travel by sea, river and road to Toulouse.

The aircraft was unveiled in Toulouse on 18 January 2005, in a ceremony attended by the heads of government of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. The first flight, on 27 April 2005, lasted almost four hours. The program then ran into trouble: wiring harnesses designed with incompatible software versions in Hamburg and Toulouse did not fit together, and had to be redone by hand. Deliveries were delayed by two years, at a cost of billions of euros and a change of leadership at Airbus. Singapore Airlines received the first aircraft on 15 October 2007 and put it into service ten days later.

The A380 never reached its projected sales. Airlines preferred long-range twin-engine aircraft like the 777 and A350, which are more flexible and cheaper to operate, and point-to-point routes grew faster than hub routes. Emirates, with 123 aircraft, was the customer that kept the program alive. In February 2019 Airbus announced the end of production, and the last delivery took place in December 2021. The pandemic grounded many aircraft, but since 2022 a large share has returned to service due to a shortage of large aircraft.