10 Down, 40 To Go

The Chief Operating Officer (Customers) of Airbus, John Leahy, is the quintessential marketing executive. Aggressive, competitive and taking the battle to the other camp and as Airbus A380 celebrates its tenth anniversary, he is talking about the Superjumbo breaking into the US market.

SP’s AirBuz (SP’s): How popular is A380?

John Leahy (Leahy): There are 13 airlines flying A380. We have sold over 300 aircraft about half of them have been delivered. In fact one airline, Emirates has 60 A380s in operation today. In fact every four minutes an A380 is landing or taking off somewhere in the world. That is every four minutes 24/7 an A380 takes off or lands somewhere in the world.

SP’s: Could you give an example of how an airline has benefited by switching over to A380?

Leahy: I hate to use examples for individual airlines but this is so obvious I am sure British Airways doesn’t mind. They had three 747s flying from London Heathrow to Los Angeles everyday and passengers were happy. They realised they could put two A380s on the same route. They made more money, the passengers were even happier, market share improved because the aircraft is comfortable and the seats are bigger. It’s much quieter, so it’s a winwin. The airline is happy they make more money, the passenger is happy, he has a better flight.

SP’s: How does it compare with the Boeing 787?

Leahy: The A380 is about twice the size of a 787 or even our own A350 so we have A350s to compete with the 787. But no airline in the world would think that an A380 and 787 are comparable aircraft and could be substituted for each other. You would need two 787 flights to handle the passengers on one A380 and it would cost you more money and you would burn more fuel and you would make more noise. That is not a win-win for anybody.

SP’s: While you are comparing the benefits of an A380 to that of Boeing’s aircraft, why is it that Airbus has not been able to sell the in the US?

Leahy: I think it is just a matter of time in the US market. The 747 hasn’t played very well in the US market. But as the US airlines move more into Asia and more into those big hubs we see around the world they will need the A380 and then of course the passengers will demand the A380. Traffic is doubling every 15 years. This has been happening since the dawn of the jet age. It will, if anything, accelerate. Parts of Asia are doubling every 10 years. People say well there are areas of the world like Africa where you will never use an A380 but I beg to differ. There are A380s flying to South Africa as I speak. The A380 will be flying on every continent with virtually every international major airline. Its just a matter of time.

SP’s: What efforts are on to upgrade the aircraft?

Leahy: We constantly talk to our customers and there have been rumours out in the field about whether we are going to look at new engines on the airplane, new aerodynamic improvements on the aircraft. These are evolutionary changes.

They are part of the system of keeping an airplane alive for up to 40 or 50 years and this programme will be around 40 to 50 years from now. No doubt in my mind about that.