Demand for 1,283 new V L A passenger aircraftTo maximise the profit potential of operations in an era characterised by severe price competition, a need to differentiate airline product offering through comfort, as well as increasingly stringent infrastructure and environmental constraints, airlines will operate 1,283 very large aircraft (VLA) such as the A380, by 2026. By 2026, these VLA will be serving 195 airports, linking 491 airport-pairs and operating in a diverse set of markets. They will operate out of many of the airports that handle the 747, including the top 20, which currently account for 67% of 747 operations. Similarly, Airbus anticipates that flights from just these top 20 airports will use the productive capacity of 889 aircraft, or 69% of the 2026 VLA fleet. London, Hong Kong, Narita and Dubai will require nearly 340 VLA. Although Los Angeles is the only North American city within the top ten, together with San Francisco and New York, they will use the productive capacity of nearly 100 VLA, as already confirmed with the routes announced by current A380 customers. The top three VLA airports will be London Heathrow, Hong Kong, and Dubai. The global network airlines will use as much as 82% of the world’s large aircraft to meet their requirements on routes between the mega hub cities like London, Beijing, Tokyo, New York. Very large eco-efficient aircraft, like the A380, are able to move people at lower seat mile costs than other aircraft in airline revenue service today. This class of aircraft will also be of interest to LCCs and charter airlines, that may find themselves in competition on certain long-haul routes in the future. |
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