The last A380 produced by the Lagardère Airbus factories made its first flight on March 17, 2021 -
JV Reymondon / Airbus
Two decades after the launch of the A380 program, the last copy of the Super Jumbo to leave the Airbus factories in Toulouse made its first flight on March 17.
Baptized MSN272, he took the direction of Hamburg where his cabin will be fitted out, before returning to be delivered to the Emirates company next year.
The latest # A380 assembled by #Airbus MSN 272 and destined for #Emirates 🇦🇪 made its first flight today in the skies of #Toulouse 🇪🇺 https://t.co/WmycBothcD
- It's in the air ✈️ (@cestenlair) March 17, 2021
This last symbolic takeoff marks the beginning of the end of this aeronautical adventure, which will have been confronted with many difficulties, in particular of industrialization.
Last delivery in 2022
The shutdown has nothing to do with the crisis in the aviation sector because of the Covid-19.
It was given two years ago, when the Emirates company decided to cancel part of its orders for the A380.
"The consequence of this decision is that our order book is no longer sufficient to allow us to maintain production of the A380", declared mid-February 2019 Tom Enders, the boss of Airbus at the time.
A total of 251 aircraft were assembled at the Lagardère factory, right next to the runways at Toulouse-Blagnac airport.
"There are still five A380s to be delivered to Emirates, the last three will be delivered from Toulouse in 2022," said a spokesperson for the European aircraft manufacturer.
Now empty, the assembly line of the A380 had for a time been mentioned to accommodate part of the production of the A321.
But in the meantime the coronavirus crisis has passed through there and it is far from having returned to its highest level.
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