It has been rumoured for some time that Turkish Airlines is considering acquiring an A380 fleet – the carrier has been in negotiations for a while regarding leasing or indeed purchasing the aircraft type. Yesterday Reuters, quoting airline sources, confirmed that such negotiations remain ongoing but that the airline is considering all types of widebodies along with the A380.
Although sales have stalled, Airbus remains confident that the very large aircraft has a place in the industry that has strong traffic growth and constrained airport capacity.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Dublin conference last week, one industry expert stated to this news service that on paper the aircraft makes sense in such a high traffic growth environment with increasingly limited slot space and it appeals to consumers, but in reality airlines don’t want to take the risk of flying empty planes.