Emirates close the book on the A380 future

In an interview with UAE newspaper The National, the president of Emirates (pictured right)  airline said projections for lower passenger traffic following the crisis, will likely reduce the appetite of carriers for wide-body planes
“We know the A380 is over,” he said. “The 747 is over but the A350 and the 787 will always have a place. They may not be ordered soon, they may have orders deferred and pushed back, but eventually they will come back, and they will be a better fit probably for global demand in the years post the pandemic,” he said.
“Do I see demand for these bigger aircraft slowing, yes I do,” he added. “The numbers I would suggest will be lower in the next three to five years and I think Boeing and Airbus recognise that, and are already slowing their production now. You can’t fly from Dubai to San Francisco in a 737 non-stop but you can on a 787 and you can on an A350 and very comfortably.”
Sir Tim told the Abu Dhabi paper that more airlines could have collapsed or consolidated globally without government intervention amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It might have happened had there not been massive state intervention over the last months. You would have seen companies that would have ordinarily sought to merge, amalgamate with others to relieve themselves jointly of the financial predicament they face.
“That would have happened, but then of course things started to accelerate, and the financial state of the business became exponentially bad. The first port of call was not to each other but to either to the shareholders and or to the states to intervene and that is clearly what has happened.”
The Emirates chief said demand for air travel will be subdued for the coming years due to the fallout from the crisis.
“We have just got to accept that in the next year or two, perhaps a bit longer, demand for air travel is going to be tempered in many respects,” he told The National. “What emerges from this will be in my view almost perhaps 20 or 30 per cent less than what we were experiencing prior to the coronavirus kicking in.”