Watch: Airbus marks end of an era as it delivers last A380 superjumbo to Emirates

Even though no more A380s will be built, the Dubai airline will keep flying them for years

Airbus is set to deliver the final A380 superjumbo to Dubai's Emirates on Thursday, marking the end of a 14-year run that gave Europe an instantly recognised symbol across the globe but failed to fulfil the commercial vision of its designers.

Production of the world's largest airliner - capable of seating 500 people on two decks together with perks like showers in first class - has ended after 272 were built compared with the 1,000 or more once predicted.

Airbus, a planemaking conglomerate drawn together from separate entities in Britain, France, Germany and Spain to carry out their brainchild of mega-jets to beat congestion, pulled the plug in 2019 after airlines went for smaller, leaner models.

Thursday's handover is expected to be low key, partly because of Covid restrictions and also because Airbus is these days focusing its PR on environmental benefits of smaller jets.

That's in stark contrast to the spectacular light show that revealed the new behemoth in front of European leaders in 2005.

Emirates is by far the largest buyer and still believes in the superjumbo's ability to lure passengers. Even though no more A380s will be built, it will keep flying them for years. Many airlines disagree and have axed the A380 during the pandemic.

Airline president Tim Clark refuses to bow to sceptics who say the days of spacious four-engined jets like the A380 are numbered as an airline seat becomes a commodity like any other.

"I don't share that view at all ... And I still believe there is a place for the A380," Clark recently told reporters.

"Technocrats and accountants said it was not fit for purpose ... That doesn't resonate with our travelling public. They absolutely love that airplane," he said.

Shower talks

The A380's demise left deserted one of the world's largest buildings, a 122,500-sqm assembly plant in Toulouse.

Airbus plans to use part of it to build some of the bread-and-butter narrowbody models that dominate sales like a deal with Qantas announced earlier on Thursday read more .

But it is in Hamburg that some of the most striking features of the A380 evolved.

Clark recalled how he huddled with Airbus developers in northern Germany to persuade Airbus chiefs in France to pay for the engineering needed to make in-flight showers a reality.

"There was a lot of arm-folding and my friends in France were a little circumspect," Clark said.

"I had to sit with friends in the development unit in Hamburg having to build the showers, and then asked Toulouse management to see how it could be done, and so they bought in."