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The Airbus A380, once hailed as an engineering marvel, has seen its production come to a halt after only 251 units were built. The final aircraft was delivered to Emirates in December 2021. Despite its impressive design and popularity among passengers, the A380 program was deemed a financial failure for Airbus.
Airbus invested $25 billion into the development of the A380 but never recouped these costs. Although designed to alleviate congestion at major airports by shuttling more passengers between hubs, the A380 did not receive enough orders to be commercially viable. According to Aviation Week, "Airbus thought it had to build an aircraft that would compete with the 747 and break into the Boeing monopoly on very large jets."
The aircraft's features include a wingspan of 79.8 meters and four powerful engines capable of producing 81,500 pounds of thrust each. However, plans for a freighter version and a stretched passenger variant never materialized due to lack of interest from airlines.
