When the 380 was originally being mooted, wasn’t this the objective of the aircraft - translatlantic shuttling between slot-constrained major airports? It does that job VERY well.
True, but this objective did not allow enough units to be sold to get a break-even. Airbus therefore tried to lure operators into believing that it could do just as well in competing with twins on all routes by their sheer pax number, especially by implementing more high revenue pax (you know, the ones that pay Y, get upgraded and drunk at the bar ....)
The problem is that more and more airlines are exploring point to point services rather than hub and spoke. The modern less-patient pax wants convenience as well as low fares. The likes of a 787/350 can do that.
They are not 'exploring' that. It was Boeing's antithesis to the above since the beginning and most operators apparently made a better assessment of the future than EK and AB.
When EK ordered 120 of these behemoths, I don’t think it was out of arrogance or ego, just a lack of foresight to see the amount of competition in the region and with far eastern carriers linking Europe and Asia.
You may call it lack of foresight, i however call it arrogance when you belittle the competition, like Timmy did when pretending that they were less skilfully managed in not going for the dugong. Just as i call it arrogance when AAR boasted on an interview that EK needed even bigger airframes, because when 'we open the doors, they flock in'.