What does the airbus a380 weigh?

A certified airliner has no single weight, only a set of structural limits. For the Airbus A380-800 the maximum take-off weight is 575 tonnes (1,268,000 lb), the highest ever approved for a commercial aeroplane. Maximum landing weight is much lower, 394 tonnes, because the gear, the structure and the brakes have to absorb an arrival rather than a gentle departure. A typical operating empty weight, meaning airframe, engines, cabin fit, crew and catering but no payload or fuel, sits near 277 tonnes. The difference between that and the take-off limit, close to 300 tonnes, is what pays: passengers, bags, freight and, mostly, kerosene.

The 181-tonne spread between the take-off and landing limits is burned in flight. On a fourteen-hour sector the aircraft leaves near its structural ceiling and arrives comfortably under the landing limit without anyone doing anything special. The exception is an early return: a crew coming back shortly after departure must hold to burn fuel, jettison it, since the A380 has a dump system, or accept an overweight landing, which triggers an inspection before the aircraft flies again.

Putting 575 tonnes onto a runway is as much a ground problem as an aerodynamic one. The A380 rides on 22 wheels, two on the nose and twenty across four main gear units, so that load per wheel and pavement stress stay close to those of smaller widebodies and existing runways did not have to be rebuilt. In the air the work falls to a wing of 845 square metres spanning 79.75 metres, deliberately sized with margin so that heavier versions could be certified later without redesigning the aircraft.