What's Boeing's match to Airbus A380?

Answer 1

The A380 is not a very competitive aircraft in any category. It only has a lot of seats, but it does not compete in any other category with any Boeing aircraft.
The 747 has 500 seats and can operate from most major airports, the A380 has a few more, but can only operate from a few airports, you can count them on one hand.
The A380 is more of a European thing, them trying to outdo us in a way that they think we actually care about, just like how they build fighter aircraft for several times the price of the ones we could show them how to build just to shove it in our faces. Its not like the people of Europe are deciding what they want to make, they couldnt care less as long as life is good, its the beurocrats, so every 10 years or so they do something crazy like this and waste billions of dollars (or the equivalent obviously) . 10 years ago it was the eurofighter, 20 years ago it was the mirage 2000 and the tornado, 30 years ago it was the leopard and challenger tanks, and 40 years ago it was the harrier. 50 years ago it was the hunter and the Mystère. Now its the A380.
There was never a reason for any of them except for nationalism against something that couldnt be more meaningless.

Answer 2

Well, the market or niche for the A380 are long haul, high capacity routes. It's well suited for international airports with severe capacity limitations which make it difficult for airlines to add additional flights - such as Tokyo-Narita and London Heathrow, so the only way they can serve more passengers is to increase the carrying capacity of existing flights. So technically, the A380 expands on the current 747-400 by carrying more passengers and thereflow lowering the per passenger fuel/cost.

Now Boeing has two new aircraft that have two somewhat different philosophies - the Dreamliner (787) and the 747-8. The Dreamliner is designed for long haul routes with thinner capacities (point to point) but will burn a lot less fuel than a 747-400 or a A340, because it has only 2 engines. High fuel costs are an airline's biggest operating cost aside from personnel - which has spurred the sales of the 2-engined 777 aircraft to exceed the 4 engine A340.

The 747-8 is a evolution over the 747-800 - with more capacity - pretty similar to the A380's approach though it may have an edge given that it's a familar airframe and will require less additional cockpit crew training than the all new A380.

Answer 3

Technically speaking the Airbus A380 is the Boeing B747's competition, an attempt on breaking the queens's 40 year old reign. These two companies dont quite compete head-to-head. Instead they respond with models that are slightly different from the other. The A380 is much bigger than the standard B747, so cannot really considered as a competitor for the Jumbo. The B747's latest version, the 747-8I will be the closest competitor for the A380 and yet it will be 60 odd passengers short when compared to the A380 in 3-class passenger configuration.

Answer 4

The A380 was built to compete with the 747. And to make it stand out they made it even bigger than the 747. The closest comparison would be the 747-8 which has a newly designed interior to match the newly revitalized concept of comfort on long flights.

The blended wing/body design mentioned by others is still in very early stages of development. So far they have a flying scale model to test the aerodynamics in the real world. It is not being developed exclusively as a response to the A380. It has potential for commercial and military heavy lift aircraft, it can used to fit more people into an aircraft of the same basic dimensions as a standard design.

Answer 5

Boeing cannot match the A380, but they have pretty cornered the market with the 777. Airlines are beginning to replace their 747-400 aircraft and are doing so with a mix of A380s and 777s.

Answer 6

There isnt a direct competitor but the Boeing 747-800 Intercontinental is the closest product Boeing have to offer. Boeing decided years ago that a superjumbo wasnt worth the investment and settled on upgrading the Jumbo Jet.

Answer 7

the airbus a380 was the response to boeings 747-400

Answer 8

Boeing decided there wasn't enough of a market to spend the money to match the A380. They decided to invest in point to point fuel efficient B787.

Answer 9

higher quality aircraft throughout their entire catalog of airframes.

airbus may be trying to corner the long distance market with this behemoth, but it's such a small part of the market they may find it wasn't worth the investment the put into it to develop it.

Boeing is such a better built aircraft that that alone is the selling point that keeps them where they are in the market.

EDIT: although Farrahd is correct that there is a larger Boeing in development, most of us in the industry don't think it will see the light of day.....there's too much money in the short haul/regional market that Boeing is just trying to rattle Airbus's cage a little, that's all, with word of a development project going on.......those of us in the industry who know about these things would disagree that it will ever fly with paying passengers......

Answer 10

Farrhad its 787 not the 797. In fact the 787 has been released just last summer I think.