Emirates interest may not be enough to justify Airbus A380 upgrade in 2022

The Airbus A380 is a bit of a paradox as it is loved by passengers for its space and comfort, but despite being able to carry appreciably more passengers, it is disliked by airlines who, up until the recent drop in the price of aviation fuel, have leant more towards the smaller twin-engine jets which are more economical too run.
The current lack of interest in these larger-style planes, including the Boeing 747, and which can carry up to 525 passengers, is reflected in the fact that last year there were no orders placed for the 747 or A380 jets, the industry showing greater interest in the smaller craft.
Back in December 2014 Airbus had decided to accelerate its research into upgrading the A380 and had entered into discussions with Rolls-Royce to provide a variety of all-new engine options for the A380neo and the larger A380-900 stretch ranging from derivatives of the A350’s XWB-84/97 to the future Advance project which had been unveiled earlier in 2014.
The following month, January 2015, Tim Clark, CEO of Emirates, Airbus’ largest client for the A380, confirmed their wish to acquire a further 100 A380s providing Airbus upgraded the engines. “What we’ve said as Emirates is if you’re going to do the Neo, we’re in for 100,” he said at the World Economic Forum that month. “Put it on the table, we’ll start off for you.” A Neo development would cut seat-mile costs by a projected 10 – 13%.
However support from Emirates with an order worth US$43 billion at list prices would not be sufficient for Airbus to continue with the proposed upgrade for 2022/2023 and interest from other airlines would be needed.
Clark has urged other carriers to reevaluate the superjumbo as a viable solution to likely capacity constraints which may come into play at airport hubs in the Americas and Europe over the next three-to-seven years.
“The Neo would do a lot of good for marketeers to go and sell what I think is essentially a very good product,” Clark said. “I’m confident that if they do that, they can find buyers for this plane post-2020.”
Airbus Chief Executive Fabrice Bregier said at an industry gathering in New York this week that he believes an upgrade to the A380 aircraft in 2022 may be too early, confirming that while interest from Airbus is important, the company must still justify to other airlines that an upgraded aircraft has merit.