A Qantas A380 on final approach for LAX in 2010. Photo: Chris Jacobs – OPShots Contributor //
The competing—and once fiercely debated—Airbus hub-centric and Boeing point-to-point views of the commercial air travel market have created a battle that is now largely “theoretical” given some of the market success of the A380 to date, says Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Bregier.
“When a customer operates an A380 they gain market share,” even in markets where Airbus never guessed the big aircraft would operate, he says. “And the competitors can notice it.”
With hub depeaking and network changes worldwide, much of the large-volume hub-to-hub traffic foreseen a decade ago that helped justify the A380’s launch has yet to materialize. But Bregier, briefing reporters earlier this week at Airbus’s Toulouse aircraft-delivery center, argues that while neither of the two airframers’ competing visions may have proved wholly accurate, airline success stories and the size of the backlogs make the case that the European consortium made the right call years ago.
