The world’s largest passenger airplane will live to fight another day. Airbus’s A380 superjumbo got a fresh 50-jet order from Emirates Airline, the Dubai flag carrier, on Sunday at the Dubai Air Show. The order was the first of the year for the twin-deck airplane, which has struggled with weak demand from airlines, which must struggle to fit such a large plane into their networks. Emirates is the largest buyer of the A380, with 39 in service and 101 now on order.
The plane has lost favor with several airlines, with Lufthansa and Air France-KLM backing away from the jet in favor of smaller aircraft and Virgin Atlantic Airways saying it will review whether it needs any of the six A380s it has ordered. Last week, Airbus parent EADS said it had open production slots in 2015 for the jet and that it may need to review whether to slow production, given the weak demand. (Rival Boeing’s largest jet, the 747-8, has struggled with similar weak demand.)
