Airbus A380 superjumbo: Air France to ditch world's biggest airliner

Air France has announced plans to ditch its entire fleet of 10 Airbus A380s in the latest blow to the future of the plane. Last year the airline said it would not renew the leases on 5 of its 10 "superjumbos", but that 5 others would be renovated at a cost of around US$45m per aircraft. Now it has scrapped the upgrades and will retire all 10 jets by 2022. Airbus received just 2 orders for the plane in 2015 and none in either 2016 or 2017. In Jan 2018 Emirates, the A380's biggest customer, threw the superjumbo a lifeline with a fresh order – but this was cancelled in Feb 2019, prompting Airbus to start winding down the aircraft's production line. Unfortunately for Airbus, the second-hand A380 market is hardly buoyant. <br/>