The incredible history of the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet, which went from airline status symbol to reject in just 10 years

In 2007, the Airbus A380 entered service to great fanfare. The gargantuan jet, dubbed the superjumbo, was designed to take everything that made the Boeing 747 an icon and push it to the limits of modern engineering.

A decade later, things are very different for the A380.

The superjumbo hasn't been the game changer Airbus had hoped it would become when the massive double-decker was conceived two decades ago. This is especially the case on the financial front.

For much of the plane's life, Airbus has struggled to find airlines willing to put the A380 into service.

With a price tag of $445.6 million, the A380 is one of the most expensive and lavish airplanes ever built. With room for as many as 800 passengers, the double-decker's sheer size means it's an occasion whenever a superjumbo arrives.

But in a cost-conscious market and with fluctuating fuel prices, the very attributes that made the plane stand out may have also doomed it. Some say the A380 came two decades too late, while others say that with increasing airport congestion, the plane is ahead of its time.

Regardless, no one can deny the engineering marvel of the aircraft. Here's a look at the topsy-turvy history of the Airbus A380 superjumbo.

On April 27, 2005, at 10:30 a.m. local time, the first Airbus A380 prototype opened up the throttles of its four massive turbofan engines.

As the superjumbo took off from Airbus' facility in Toulouse, France, the largest commercial airliner around was actually flying.

But the A380's story starts decades earlier.

During the 1970s, Airbus' A300B was the new kid in the world of commercial airliners.

It spent the decade trying to break into a market dominated by the Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

The 747's size, performance, and efficiency helped lower operating costs for airlines enough to make air travel affordable for the masses.

By the early 1990s, Airbus was in a much different position. Its narrow-body A320 family, which helped pioneer civilian fly-by-wire technology, was well on its way to becoming the second-best-selling jetliner in history.

At the same time, the company unveiled its new A330 ...

... and A340 family wide-body jets. Now, Airbus has set its sights on a bigger target ...

... the Boeing 747-400. Airbus wanted to produce an aircraft even bigger than Boeing's jumbo jet — with lower operating costs.

The result was a double-decker concept called the A3XX.

The A3XX would eventually morph into the A380 superjumbo.

The A380 is built in a 1.6-million-square-foot assembly plant at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse.

At 239 feet long, 79 feet tall, and 262 feet from wingtip to wingtip, it's a big plane.

Only the Boeing 747-8 is longer, at 250 feet and two inches.

According to Airbus, in a typical four-class seating arrangement, the superjumbo can carry as many as 544 passengers, with a range of more than 9,400 miles.

Power for the A380 comes from a quartet of engines from suppliers Rolls-Royce and Engine Alliance.

The A380's flight crew operates from a state-of-the-art glass cockpit. Like all modern Airbus jets, the aircraft is flown using a side stick, with a fly-by-wire control system.

After its maiden flight, the A380 completed a flight-test program before entering commercial service in 2007.

As an airliner, the A380 promised luxury and comfort on an unprecedented scale.

The Airbus delivered. Premium features, such as walk-up bars ...

... private lounges ...

... and bathrooms with showers set the superjumbo apart from its rivals.

And then there are the first-class suites ...

... the even larger first-class suites ...

... and Etihad's The Residence.

It's a 125-square-foot flying home.

On October 15, 2007, Singapore Airlines took delivery of the first production A380.

Soon, other global airlines, such as Korean Air ...

... Lufthansa ...

... Qantas ...

... British Airways ...

... Malaysia Airlines ...

... Thai Airways ...

... Air France ...

... Qatar Airways ...

... Asiana Airlines ...

... China Southern ...

... and Etihad took delivery of the plane.

Portugal's HiFly became the first airline to operate a second-hand A380 when it took delivery of an ex-Singapore Airlines jet in the summer of 2018.

Japan's All Nippon Airways will soon take delivery of its first A380.

But no customer is more important than Emirates and its CEO, Shiekh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, seen here with Airbus CEO Tom Enders.

According to Airbus, Emirates currently accounts for 162 of the 331 A380s ever ordered.

This includes the 20 Superjumbos Emirates ordered in January 2018, which are expected to keep the A380 production line moving for the next decade.

Last year, Emirates took delivery of its 100th A380. No other airline operates more than 19 of the double-deckers.

Why does Emirates love the A380 so much, at a time when most of the airlines in the world have stayed away?

Emirates is a predominantly long-haul international airline whose business is built around funneling millions of passengers through its palatial central hub in Dubai and then on to destinations around the world.

As a result, Emirates needs an aircraft that can carry a lot of passengers for very long distances — a perfect job for the A380.

But few airlines use Emirates' strategy. These days, the trend in the industry is to offer direct flights using smaller long-range aircraft.

Instead of Emirates' dedicated hub-and-spoke route model, most airlines have moved towards more point-to-point flying. This has allowed smaller, more efficient twinjets like the Boeing 777 ...

... and the Airbus A330 to become the dominant forces in long-haul flying.

Smaller next-generation composite wide-bodies like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner offer airlines more flexibility and less risk. According to the CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, it costs less to operate two Dreamliners than it does to fly a single A380.

As a result, the A380 never developed into a true workhorse like the 747. Instead, it has been relegated to a niche aircraft economically feasible only on routes with heavy airport congestion.

But with airport congestion issues on the rise, this could become a major selling point in the future for the A380.

Thus, new orders have been hard to come by. And with fuel prices once again skyrocketing, life won't get any easier for the gargantuan jetliner.

Boeing has all but given up on the 747-8 as a passenger jet. Only the freighter version remains in production, at a rate of just one plane every two months.

Boeing expects the next generation, twin-engine 777X to be its new flagship.

With early production A380s coming to the end of their 10-year leases, Airbus will likely have to contend with competition for its own used planes. However, early signs for the second-hand market aren't promising. German investment firm Dr. Peters Group has decided to sell its off-lease A380s for spare parts after it couldn't find any takers for the plane.

Emirates' president, Sir Tim Clark, has for years pushed Airbus to make a more cost-effective version of the plane with upgraded aerodynamics and a new fuel-efficient engine called the A380neo.

Airbus has been reluctant to invest the kind of money needed to develop a new version of the A380. In 2017, Airbus offered its customers a moderately updated version of the plane, called the A380 Plus, with room for 80 more people and new winglets for better fuel economy. So far, there have been no takers.

Unlike with the Boeing 747, the A380 freighter never came to fruition, so Airbus won't be able to subsist on sales of a cargo variant while it waits for passenger-plane sales to rebound.

Even though the A380 production line is set to roll on into the decade, for Airbus, the search for the next superjumbo customer continues.

The incredible history of the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet, which went from airline status symbol to reject in just 10 years

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