Uploaded February 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
5) Fill in the blanks based on what you listen:
The era of the Airbus A380 superjumbo passenger jet is coming to a close. The A380 took off for the first time in 2008 and seats 500 passengers. The company had hoped that the plane would ___________ ______ Boeing 747 and revolutionize air travel.
Passengers have always been big fans of the A380 and have given the plane high-marks for comfort, space and for the quiet ride. But airlines have been ___________ about committing to the costly double-decker planes and in the end they just weren't __________________ to pay the massive price tag. .
The A380 had troubles from the start including tensions between Airbus’s French and German management and production delays and cost overruns. Those _____________ the company restructuring that cost thousands of jobs.
After Qantas canceled 8 orders and Emirates canceled 39, the company says, it will simply put an end to production of the A380 by 2021.
Let's get a bit more on the story and for that, I'm joined in the studio by Christoph Kober, from DW Business. Hello to you Christoph.
So, you know the A380 was of course, quite a remarkable achievement at least in its day. So why wasn't it a financial success for Airbus?
There are several reasons for that, Mariana. One, the A380 is the world's biggest jetliner. We just saw there in the report. It has about 550 seats in a regular configuration and selling those seats to passengers can be a challenging.
Second, the A380 is four engines and they consume a lot of fuel. Nowadays there are smaller jets that can also go long distances but they only have two engines. For that matter it consumed in much less fuel and the fuel cost, is an issue with airlines.
And the third one is, the aviation market didn't develop as Airbus anticipated, so rather than the passenger numbers increasing on the route between the major _________ of the world - New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai. People want to fly basically door-to-door. If I want to fly from Hamburg to Boston, I want to go direct without going through a major hub.
And for the sort of connections, the A380 is simply too big. And you can see it that no major airline in South America has bought it. No airline in Africa has bought it. All of them are going for smaller long-distance planes.
Alright, so efficiency seems to be a key factor in these developments. So if they stop building this jumbo jet, what will be the impact on the company?
It is quite a __________ to Airbus. And taking the billions of Euros of development into account, Airbus didn't make a cent on the A380 overall. By this decision to end the production about 3500 workers are impacted, however Airbus says that the backlog and orders particularly for its mid-range jet A320 are so big that the jobs can be _____________ within the company.
All right Christoph Kober from DW Business, thanks so much.
5) Fill in the blanks based on what you listen:
The era of the Airbus A380 superjumbo passenger jet is coming to a close. The A380 took off for the first time in 2008 and seats 500 passengers. The company had hoped that the plane would ___________ ______ Boeing 747 and revolutionize air travel.
Passengers have always been big fans of the A380 and have given the plane high-marks for comfort, space and for the quiet ride. But airlines have been ___________ about committing to the costly double-decker planes and in the end they just weren't __________________ to pay the massive price tag. .
The A380 had troubles from the start including tensions between Airbus’s French and German management and production delays and cost overruns. Those _____________ the company restructuring that cost thousands of jobs.
After Qantas canceled 8 orders and Emirates canceled 39, the company says, it will simply put an end to production of the A380 by 2021.
Let's get a bit more on the story and for that, I'm joined in the studio by Christoph Kober, from DW Business. Hello to you Christoph.
So, you know the A380 was of course, quite a remarkable achievement at least in its day. So why wasn't it a financial success for Airbus?
There are several reasons for that, Mariana. One, the A380 is the world's biggest jetliner. We just saw there in the report. It has about 550 seats in a regular configuration and selling those seats to passengers can be a challenging.
Second, the A380 is four engines and they consume a lot of fuel. Nowadays there are smaller jets that can also go long distances but they only have two engines. For that matter it consumed in much less fuel and the fuel cost, is an issue with airlines.
And the third one is, the aviation market didn't develop as Airbus anticipated, so rather than the passenger numbers increasing on the route between the major _________ of the world - New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai. People want to fly basically door-to-door. If I want to fly from Hamburg to Boston, I want to go direct without going through a major hub.
And for the sort of connections, the A380 is simply too big. And you can see it that no major airline in South America has bought it. No airline in Africa has bought it. All of them are going for smaller long-distance planes.
Alright, so efficiency seems to be a key factor in these developments. So if they stop building this jumbo jet, what will be the impact on the company?
It is quite a __________ to Airbus. And taking the billions of Euros of development into account, Airbus didn't make a cent on the A380 overall. By this decision to end the production about 3500 workers are impacted, however Airbus says that the backlog and orders particularly for its mid-range jet A320 are so big that the jobs can be _____________ within the company.
All right Christoph Kober from DW Business, thanks so much.
