Aircraft
Emirates Ponders A380 Retirement Plan

With 36 A380 aircraft in the fleet as of late September and a further 104 now on order, the aviation community is trying to calculate what will happen to Emirates’ superjumbo fleet when the time comes to retire the type, at around halfway through its lifetime. Some analysts believe that, given a lifespan of 25 years, a proxy for the useful life of a modern widebody aircraft, the A380 will face problems in the secondary market when major leases come to an end after the standard 12-year term.

In an interview ahead of the Dubai Airshow, Emirates president Tim Clark told AIN that he expects the carrier will take delivery by the end of the year of almost half of the 90 A380s it has ordered. “Seven more A380s being delivered between [late September] and December 21. That will take us to 43,” he said.