End of super jumbo will affect up to 200 jobs in region

Up to 200 jobs could be affected by the decision to cease production of the Airbus A380 aircraft.

The pan-European manufacturer has announced that the last A380 will be constructed in 2021.

Wings for the aircraft are made at the Airbus plant in Broughton, near Chester, which employs more than 6,000 staff. Wings are designed at the Filton plant, in Bristol, which employs 3,000 staff.

The world’s largest passenger aircraft cost about $25bn (£19.4bn) to develop but has never made a profit.

The decision came after Emirates, the largest A380 customer, cut its order.

It is understood that between 3,000 to 3,500 jobs could potentially be impacted over the next three years as production winds down, which could result in around 200 UK jobs being threatened.

Airbus said it hopes to redeploy a “significant” number of affected staff to other projects.

The double-decker A380, which had its first commercial flight in 2007 with Singapore Airlines, was popular with passengers but was complicated and expensive to build.

However, demand for the A380 from airlines dried up as the industry shifted away from larger planes in favour of smaller, wide-body jets.

The aircraft manufacturer had been working on a revamped A380 to make it more efficient, but needed sufficient launch orders to make the huge investment viable.

The death knell for the model came when UAE carrier Emirates, the largest A380 customer, cut its order. The Dubai-based airline is cutting its overall A380 fleet size from 162 to 123.

Emirates said it would take delivery of 14 further A380s over the next two years, but has also ordered 70 of Airbus’ smaller A330 and A350 models.

Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said the cut in orders meant production of the aircraft was not viable.

He said: “We have no substantial A380 backlog and hence no basis to sustain production, despite all our sales efforts with other airlines in recent years. This leads to the end of A380 deliveries in 2021.

“Passengers all over the world love to fly on this great aircraft. Hence today’s announcement is painful for us and the A380 communities worldwide.”