This past week the Paris Air Show has perhaps highlighted a key trend in the aviation sector. In previous years the Paris and Farnborough events have been dominated by big orders for widebodies, but this year small has been beautiful with bumper orders for new generation regional and single-aisle airliners.
The first half of the year has seen Airbus finally admit it is the end of the line for the A380, with its own A350-1000 and the new Boeing 777X providing capacity options with the efficiency of just two engines. The A380 is still loved by those that fly on it, but airlines have struggled to find sustainable markets for the aircraft. One airline has introduced the type into the second-hand market, but some early examples are already being scrapped after ten years of service.
The are still some aircraft on the orderbook to keep production continuing for a couple more years and will ensure the A380 will remain in operation deep into the late 2020s, even perhaps into the early 2030s.
Our QUESTION OF THE WEEK is… Which airports across the world will see the most A380 movements this month?
JOIN IN THE FUN: Send your answers to: The Blue Swan Daily Content Team
We will be revealing the answers at the same time next week, when we will be setting another question.
Last week we asked…What were the ten largest outbound country markets for travellers from Mainland China in 2018?
There are two correct answers for this one, depending upon whether you define the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries. If you do, then they head the raking followed (in descending order from three to twelve, or one to ten if they are excluded) by… Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, USA, Cambodia, Russia and the Philippines.