Don’t care what airline you fly on as long as you fly on an A380 jumbo jet? Then Airbus has a website for you.
Airbus has launched a booking site dedicated solely to A380 flights, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the aircraft among some passengers.
“Booking systems today do not allow the passengers to easily choose their preferred aircraft and we decided to fill that gap by easing the access to the iconic A380 aircraft, for everybody,” said Marc Fontaine, Airbus Digital Transformation Officer.
The A380 super jumbo jet operates on 102 routes to around 50 destinations globally, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai, Tokyo and Sydney.
The new website, http://iflya380.com, allows passengers to pick any A380 flight operated by one of the 13 airlines that fly the super jumbo.
Airbus said the aircraft has proven to be a hit with travelers, but the company is struggling to convince more airlines to buy it.
The A380, designed to challenge Boeing in the super large aircraft market, took 15 years to develop at a cost of $25 billion. But orders have not matched Airbus’ expectations.
Airlines are now moving towards more fuel efficient planes, rather than super large aircraft, to cut down costs. Fuel is the second biggest expense for airlines, behind staff costs.
The company announced it is cutting down production of the aircraft. It said it will build only 20 of the twin-deck A380 next year, and only 12 per year from 2018. That’s down from 27 it delivered in 2015.
