The 100th A380 superjumbo has been delivered by aerospace giant Airbus, marking a landmark for the world’s largest commercial airliner and the Filton team behind much of its innovative technology.
Now in its sixth year of commercial service, the A380 is flying with nine world-class airlines.
To date, the worldwide fleet has carried 36m passengers in 100,000 flights.
The A380 fleet performs over 140 flights per day and carries more than 1.5m people each month.
For engineers at Airbus’s Filton plant, the handover of the 100th A380 to Malaysia Airlines this week signifies a remarkable achievement.
As well as designing the wings for the aircraft, which carries around 525 passengers depending on cabin configuration, engineers at Filton also designed its fuel system and landing gear – making the aircraft probably the most important to the plant since Concorde.
The plant was involved from the start of the project to build a super jumbo – then known as the AXX – even though arch-rival Boeing claimed there would be no market for a commercial airliner of such a size.
Designing wings to lift such a large and bulky fuselage was a mammoth task.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Airbus marked the hand-over of the 100th A380 in Toulouse, Airbus’s main assembly base for the airliner. The aircraft is the sixth A380 for MAS.
Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Brégier said: “We are delighted that our 100th A380 delivery is to Malaysia Airlines as this gives us an early glimpse into the future shape of aviation,
“We see a growing demand from dynamic, competitive airlines such as MAS for larger aircraft, with many markets and routes, and in particular in the fast developing Asia-Pacific region, being ideally suited to A380s.”
Previous generation would have required 140,000 flights. This reduction in flights brings essential relief to airport-congestion and the environment. The corresponding saving of 5.7 million tonnes of CO2, demonstrates the A380 generates more revenue whilst minimising emissions and noise.
Passengers can hop on board one of the A380s which are either taking off or landing every six minutes at one of the 32 international airports where it operates to date. On top of these, more than 50 other airports are getting prepared to accommodate the A380 and answer the airlines’ need for more A380 destinations.
Over the next 20 years, more than 1,700 Very Large Aircraft (VLAs have 400 seats and above) such as the A380 will have been delivered. Asia Pacific leads demand (45%) for these high capacity aircraft, followed by the Middle East (23%) and Europe (19%).
A380 is capable of flying 8,500 nautical miles or 15,700 kilometres non-stop, carrying more people at lower cost and with less impact on the environment. The spacious, quiet cabin and smooth ride have made the A380 a firm favourite with passengers, resulting in higher load factors wherever it flies.
Since 2006 the A380 has registered repeat orders by satisfied customers every year, bringing the total order book to date to 262 from 20 customers.
But the A380 success story has not been without turbulence. A design flaw at the Filton plant was responsible for hairline cracks found on the wing brackets connecting the aircraft's internal structure to its outer skin following an incident involving a Qantas A380 in November 2010.
The cost of fixing all 70 superjumbos in service at the time was around £126m.
