“At least half price” secondhand A380s will attract new airline customers, said Airbus Chief Executive Fabrice Brégier. He expects the used A380 market to start emerging around 2020 when some of the first A380s to enter airline service are phased out by their operators.
Brégier said buyers of used A380s “will make tons of money because it will be by far the most competitive [aircraft]”. That may be true but in the process of such a cut price sell-off, will investors lose their shirts? Look at the 777-300ER – a great aircraft, but no real secondary market and trading is very hard work due to reconfiguration costs. Now imagine the cost of reconfiguration for an A380 and then come up with a competitive sale price. It might be that some A380s will have to be given away rather than sold, and the same could be said for some 777-300ERs in the future. But grabbing an A380 for partout early on is a very different story and early players in that market may do well.