Rainboe said: " the A380 IS going to be a long term success because there is no other equipment on that scale, and the world will need a monster long range carrier."
Errr.. maybe, but not in numbers that will make it commercial for Airbus. The major carriers, (excluding Emirates), are ordering them in the penny packets they need to fill a niche market, everything else can be catered for by aircraft already on the market or, like the B787 and B747-800, about to arrive.
That takes care of the American market and those that follow it, (Japan etc. etc).
I think Airbus thought they were producing a B747 replacement but scaled up to cater for increased loads, well those loads are on fairly thin routes and only require a small number of mega type airframes, everything else will go on the real B747 replacement, the B777-200 & -300 +ER etc. and the A330/340-500 & -600 that can offer greater flexibility to the travelling public. I suspect that Airbus are heading for some really serious trouble with the A380 and BAE Systems will be well shot of them.