The recent decision to end production of the A380 after Emirates scaled back its final orders has been followed by a decision by Lufthansa to trade in eight aircraft from its 14 strong A380 fleet as part of an order for new A350-900 aircraft.Built as a super-hub connector, it arrived as markets were starting to move away from pushing passengers to larger hub airports for connecting flights to increasing the number of non-stop links.
Global air travel demand — now more than 4 billion passengers per year — is large enough for many city pairs to be served on a non-stop basis rather than through hub connections. The most recent advances in aircraft technology have given aircraft that previously only served short haul domestic and regional markets the range to cross the North Atlantic, and the right scale to connect smaller city pairs.