What once seemed a doomed drawing on Airbus design sheets, the A380 is now an in-service aircraft that regularly crisscrosses the globe, presenting passengers with a unique travel experience that none will soon forget.  While the plane has left the drawing board and some of its production difficulties behind, we have to wonder if the huge jet is too big for our new, smaller economy.  Could it be that a few years down the line we will see the end of the A380, far from its expected service life?  Only time will tell if the plane keeps flying, but Airbus will have a difficult job keeping the A380 relevant in this economy.

A380. Image by Airbus

Recent events aren’t helping the A380s image.  Qantas has complained to Airbus that it has grounded some planes due to technical difficulties and Emirates Airline has filed some grief as well.  While Airbus will surely address these issues swiftly (at least I hope), the problems tarnish the image of what is now considered THE plane to fly overseas by the affluent travelers.  It doesn’t help either that its competition, the Boeing 747 and 777 series of planes have a great track record and have proven their worth for many years now.  The 747 is practically legendary; the first plane most kids learn about (OK…its probably Jay Jay the Jet Plane, but I’m talking real planes here).

Just this week, Emirates Airlines announced it would be pulling their A380s out of New York and sending them to service other routes (in Toronto and Bangkok).  It seems that busy JFK is not so busy in this economy and that the planes cannot be filled with enough passengers to make economic sense for the airline.  In its place, a 777 will now carry passengers across the globe.  Only Qantas will bring the two-decker plane to the United States now, at least until things start looking good in Dubai again.

Add to this that only three airlines are currently using the aircraft in regular service and a history of production problems and delays before the aircraft even entered service and you have one of the shoddiest reputations for a new airliner in history.  Legions of Boeing lovers are not far away, always quick to point all the deficiencies in the A380, even if Boeing airplanes suffer the same issues.  To them, even the old Boeings that don’t start with 7s are a better airplane than anything the European consortium can muster.

However, this isn’t a Boeing vs. Airbus thing.  Personally, I love both brands and I hope that I get to fly in many new and interesting designs in the future from both manufacturers.  What worries me is how badly innovation is received by the public these days.  Some fifty years back, the most ungodly horrible airplane would have been a success with the press; it would have been welcome by most of the general public.  You could mow down an entire countryside of forests to make a single plane (like the Spruce Goose) and win the hearts of even the most avid skeptics.  Today, though, most new planes go completely unnoticed in the public’s eye, generating very little excitement in the time challenged minds of the everyday Joes and Janes.  Not many people outside of aviation and frequent flier circles noticed when the 767s and 777s entered service or even know what an A330 or A340 is.  Children’s toys are still dominated by the Boeing 747 or even the Boeing 727 (although I have to say I haven’t really looked into French toy stores to see if their toys are comprised of A320s and A380s carrying French Elmos).  The general public doesn’t know what’s next for Boeing.

Most of this lack of excitement is due to the airliner industry’s inability to generate a buzz around their products.  Their efforts are concentrated in getting people excited with a drawing of a futuristic plane, then downgrading the design so it looks like the last plane they built with a few changes, and then leaving the public forgotten for the five to seven years it takes to generate 100 different stories of manufacturing inefficiencies in Europe or worker unhappiness in the US.  When the plane finally debuts, it’s left up to the airlines to generate excitement in the aircraft, which usually includes only a few days of CNN coverage and a well placed YouTube commercial.

A true buzz should get people excited like in the Boeing 747 days.  It should have toy makers lining up to stick the latest Barbie in her slick new Airbus or Boeing.  It should make most of the general public connoisseurs of the airplane you’re bringing to the skies.  Airbus and Boeing (and Embraer too!) should go out and get themselves a viral marketing agency, they should make some funny ads, make fun of each other in Super Bowl ads, and spam YouTube and Facebook; all in an effort to get people excited about their planes.  Without this excitement, people just won’t care about what they fly.  When I ask most travelers what plane they would like to fly on, the most common answer is still the 747.  I don’t think that’s because the 747 is that much greater than any other airplane, but because that is what people grew up to know was the coolest plane out there.  Airplane manufacturers and airlines should ensure that people want to fly their latest offerings because that’s what will sell having the latest crop of aircraft in airline’s fleet.  If you want people to flock to your airline because you have an A380 or will be flying the 787 in the future, then do more than release a few YouTube campaigns.  Make people think it is their ultimate dream to fly in your plane.

Only by fostering this sort of sentiment, will you foster innovation in aviation.  It’s not an issue of whether the size of the A380 makes sense, that’s another post and requires more analysis than I’m willing to deal with today.  It’s not an issue of whether the Boeing 777 can’t be differentiated from a 767 from a distance by the general public.  It is an issue of how the airlines have lost the ability to get people excited anymore (and the manufacturers too for that matter).  Boeing lovers shouldn’t get excited about problems with the A380.  They should welcome the idea of getting the public excited about a plane that is unique.  Only by getting the public involved will Boeing counter with its best efforts, even if it is in an altogether different category of airplanes.  Without competition from Airbus, Boeing would not feel compelled to constantly improve their designs.  Only by getting the public interested will innovation start to move at a quick pace again.

Maybe the A380 program will eventually suffer greatly or even fail if the economies of the world don’t head back skyward soon enough (although heavy government subsidies will most likely keep the program out of too much trouble until good times arrive).  But it won’t be just an Airbus issue.  It will be a hit to the one of the few airplanes in the last few years to challenge the status quo.  It will affect aviation in general and make manufacturers shy away from even the safest risks they could take.  Unfortunately for aviation, most of the good stories worth reading about are in the past, in the days of Amelia Earhart and kite-like airplanes.  Sure, the money involved in making improvements to the industry is huge now, but by not getting the public excited about new airplanes, we’re just making it that much harder to come by the funds.

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