A380 brings mixed fortunes to Airbus's Asian ambitions

摘要

The last half of July should have been triumphant for Airbus in Asia-Pacific, with Korean Air taking delivery of its tenth, and final, A380. Meanwhile, the brand new A350-900 performed a series of high-profile flight tests between Singapore and Hong Kong, after its blissfully smooth development programme. Unfortunately, these two feel-good stories were overshadowed by two feel-bad stories involving the A380 at two North Asian carriers. The most significant was Airbus's decision to terminate the six A380s Japan's Skymark Airlines was due to start receiving at the end of 2014. That termination, along with the re-classiiication of 10 A380s due for Hong Kong Airlines, has cut the Asia-Pacific region's orders for very large aircraft by one third.