Bad news for A380? Or not?
 

The one and only VVIP A380 was just officially cancelled. Airbus used to make a big deal about this super luxury flying palace, but it turns out the interior was never even designed. It would appear that all the pretty pictures Airbus released were artist's concepts/renderings with no basis in reality.

Airbus Cancels Only VVIP A380 Order | Business Aviation: Aviation International News

This is clearly not good news. But is it bad news, or just another ehhh?

This cancellation is just confirmation of a reality known from at least a year ago.


Nothing to see here.... move along....;)

Old news or no, the question remains. Will this hurt A380 prospects in the long run?

The A380 is intended to be leased and operated by large airlines using expensive slots at major hub airports. It is of no interest to any other sort of airline. We can assume that such airlines will make their calculations on pure economic criteria, so the decision of one billionaire not to have one as a palace in the sky is "neither here nor there".

I think what is holding up sales is uncertainty at Board level, probably due to the odd world economic climate There are several airlines who "ought" to be buying it because it fits their pattern of operations. It's very hard to see why, for example, CX is not using it between its expensive slots at CLK and its expensive slots at LHR...

Not even in the slightest. I'll guess that Airbus will be glad this distraction has gone. Support for an odd-ball costs a fortune and would have to subsided by other users. Furthermore, a private A380 is a rather vulgar aircraft that would attract undue attention wherever it went and it's size would limit the places it could go, thus limiting its utility. They might even have offered the buyer an A320 to go away.