Emirates Is Considering Ordering Another 20 A380s

i love how you've added a QR plane in the end just to subtly add fuel to the Riyadh-Doha spat *popcorn*

I'd imagine that the difference between maintenance costs of a new aircraft and a 10-year old aircraft is justifiable enough that they are ready to pay a bit more leasing costs for a new aircraft than extending the existing ones at a cheaper rate.
Just a conjecture on my part.

Maybe Emirates wants to keep that fleet shiny and new, and other carriers will consider buying used ones. Corsair should do all all economy party bus A380 from Paris to St. Maarten

A lot of the most heavily congested airports are congested because they are connecting hubs--in addition to O/D locales. Opening up more point to point service alleviates the hub congestion to the point where the need for a superjumbo may never actually materialize. If airlines can earn a revenue premium flying smaller, less expensive, more fuel efficient aircraft on these secondary routes, why wouldn't they?

Obviously that isn't true for a carrier like Emirates or Qatar which are connecting hubs much more so than destinations in their own right, but most places like that are also 24 hour airports which itself obviously alleviates lots of congestion.

Since you are one to pick up on the most minor of details (in a good way! ) I must tell you that the correct term is 'Lessor' not 'Leaser'

@ Aaron -- Good catch!

Chances are it relates to the change in accounting rules (IFRS). The tax benefits under currect rules are eroded under new rules coming in 2018. It's better to just buy as Capex rather than lease.

Granted I'm not sure in how far Dubai GAAP follows IFRS.

Remember that the A388 was never the original intended size build when designed. If you clean up the aerodynamics, add the newly introduced galley/staircase changes to increase the seat capacity by 40 Y seats, and then you add the 7m plug for the original size for a A389 AND then add (as Jim Clark has always requested,) GTF engines to this aeroplane, you would then have an aircraft that would have a seat cost reduction of approx 30-34% less than the current A388. Bringing to an average of less than 2L/100km per pax. The economics would literally crush every other long haul aircraft out of the market. In a regular 4 class cabin offering with all the above points on a new purchase you are looking at a 420pax aircraft which would go up to 500pax for an A389.
So then what are the new A350/B787 for???
Well, they are both just consolidating two previous categories of aircraft for medium haul requirements. They are neither cannibalising or opening new markets. The B767/777 as well as the A330/340 were for the most part never used to their maximum range capabilities by their respective fleet owners. The A350/B787 series of aeroplanes are basically right sizing to the market needs in addition to providing organic growth for users of the B767 who needed just a bit more seat capacity. Even with possible stretches of the A350/B787 occurring in the near future they will still be seat limited with a range of 250-350 between all versions of these families. This is due to the increased demand for square footage for both the premium and ever growing PE cabins. As an example neither QR or SQ even come close to 300 pax on their A359s (A350-900) which officially are meant to seat 325 pax. The new B779X will still only give us that extra seat growth to allow @360 pax max. (taking into current seat layouts and designs) with a bit further distance capacity. But this is its max capability until a GTF is available for further range only (its dimensions are already at max allowed by international regulations).

@lucky - I forgot to conclude... It won't take very long for routes needing more than 360pax due to slot constrained airports to demand an aircraft like the A380. Over 95% of the worlds international airports do not have the capacity to add another runway. The US has only 3 airports that can do so DFW, ORD and ATL for example.
Cheers,
Chris aka jetsetkid

Seriously when the heck will the era of 4 engine aircraft end..

Hey Lucky how is it going, can you please answer this asap if you can?
Which route did you pick for your Saudia flight from USA to KSA?
(LAX - JED), (IAD - JED), (IAD - RUH) or (JFK - RUH)?

New first class cabin coming up combined with how often Emirates upgrades their ICE system: I can see why they wouldn't care to keep the old cabins. By 2020 the new planes would just come in with the new first class rather than justifying a costly expense of retrofitting the older planes: Emirates prefers to also keep a newer fleet. Also we don't know what the product actually looks like so we don't know how difficult the retrofit would be.

Slots, slots peak hour slots st most major airports ate full or horrendously expensive. Thats why QF PER-LHR arrives mid afternoon with a greatly reduced premium cabin size due yo the lack of demand from premium passengers for the timetable. Some of us arrive in LHR @ 6am ish and teturn that night to Australia yeah it's hell but you can only do it at the pointy end.

@ SVA Liver really what are you doing on an aviation blog. Boeing to a lessor extended Airbus got the saftey range changed for the twin engine aircraft changed. Should 1 or 2 accidents occur then you ste going ti see a lot less tein engines everywhere. Four engines can take short cuts that twins can't.
Just like range if QF could get another 1500 ks out of a plane, the route SYD-LHR is very very different to todays route.

I think these planes are refered to as hub destroyers just possible know with all premium configurations.