With Emirates’s colours on its tail, the last A380 fuselage has rolled off the assembly line at Airbus’s manufacturing station in France.
Aircraft number MSN272 still has a way to go before it is ready for delivery to Dubai, but completion of the fuselage signals the beginning of the end for the superjumbo.
Around 150,000 square meters of Airbus’s assembly facility in Toulouse is dedicated to the 277-tonne double-decker jet. The aircraft manufacturer has been building these jumbo jets in France for over 15 years. Now, with the final A380 wing and fuselage structure complete, Station 40 at the Lagardere facility lies empty.
Airbus had previously announced a plan to convert Station 40 into a final assembly line for the Airbus A321. However, Covid-19 could delay this intention.
The final A380 jet has now been transported to Station 35 at the same facility where work on the aircraft will continue.
As well as having stabilisers and landing gear installed, the jet has still to be fitted with its twin engines. Engines are typically among the last components to be installed on Airbus’s superjumbos.
This final A380 double-deck passenger jet is destined for Emirates. The Dubai airline still has eight Airbus A380 jets on order. Japanese airline All Nippon also has one outstanding A380 on order.
Airbus announced the end of its A380 superjumbo production The last A380 fuselage is complete and destined for Emirateslast year. This ending was propelled by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting dip in passenger demand for travel. Without people to fill the hundreds of seats on these colossal-sized jets, many airlines around the world were forced to retire or ground their fleets of A380s.
As the airline with the highest number of superjumbos in the world, Emirates has continued flying the jet to just a handful of destinations including London, Toronto and Moscow. The Dubai airline will have a fleet of 123 A380s by the time it its final orders are delivered.
Airbus has not confirmed when the final A380 jet will be ready for delivery.
