Emirates pulls A380 from New York

Emirates is switching to Boeing 777s for its Dubai to New York service because it is unable to fill the super jumbo after operating the service for seven months.

Bloomberg reported that Frank Skodzik, an analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt said: "The A380 is so huge that in the current environment it's really hard to fill. That's why we're seeing delays in deliveries.”

Emirates, which currently has four A380s in operation has already said it is seeking to delay delivery of the remaining 54 it has on order.

Airbus hyped the A380 as being a recession buster. The European airframer argued that a very large plane offered unrivalled economies of scale and would make sense in tough times because slumping demand leads airlines to drop flights between secondary cities and focus on flying to larger hub airports, with smaller craft fanning out to minor locations.

"What they can do is consolidate flights that aren't doing so well into the A380, which is bigger and more fuel efficient," said Rohan Suppiah, an analyst at Kim Eng Securities in Singapore.

Yet for a high-frequency route that relies on business travellers using an A380 without high load factors cannot be efficient, as the Emirates switch shows.

"This aircraft redeployment was based solely on a change in capacity demands in these three markets," Emirates said in its statement Wednesday, adding that it will look again at operating the plane to New York if and when demand revives.

"For the A380 to make sense an airline must have routes with both frequencies and volume," said Yan Derocles, an analyst at Oddo Securities in Paris. "If you don't have those two you don't benefit from the lower unit costs per seat because you can't actually fill the plane."

Airbus said carriers routinely shift fleets around to adjust to market conditions.

"It is a fully normal process in operations to deploy aircraft where the airline sees a best fit, and this is of course continuously optimised throughout the year," quoted sales chief John Leahy in Bloomberg.

Airbus declined to comment on potential changes to delivery schedules for the A380, which is priced at $327 million before discounts.

The company handed over 12 of the superjumbos last year and in December cut the target for 2009 by three planes to 18. Emirates, Qantas and Singapore Airlines, the only current operators, are scheduled to get about five A380s apiece, with Air France also due to take its first plane.

Leahy says the A380 remains the best available solution for those carriers looking to serve airports where traffic rights or landing slots are limited and demand is high. London Heathrow, the busiest international airport, already receives A380 flights from all three airlines that operate the type.