Europe's aircraft manufacturer Airbus would stop production of A380 after Emirates, the largest aircraft customer, reduced its orders as part of its restructuring plan, Aibus Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders announced on Thursday.
"As a result of this decision 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," said Enders.
"Today's announcement is painful for us," he added, noting that "the consequences of this decision are largely embedded in our 2018 full year results."
As part of a plan to overview its operations in light of developments in aircraft and engine technologies, Emirates decided to reduce its A380 orderbook by 39 aircraft.
Instead, it placed a new order for 40 A330-900 neo jets and 30 A350-900 aircraft, Aibus' newest generation.
The European manufacturer said it would start discussions with its social partners in the next few weeks regarding the 3,000 to 3,500 jobs potentially impacted over the next three years.
Making its maiden flight in 2005, the A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, was manufactured to compete with arch rival Boeing, which maintains a monopoly in the large-aircraft market.
Despite the "painful" news to scrap A380, Airbus was upbeat on this year's performance as it estimated to deliver between 880 and 890 commercial aircraft due to expected growth in world economy and air traffic.
As a result, it forecast a 15-percent increase in EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) this year from over 5 billion euros (5.62 billion U.S. dollars) recorded in 2018 despite the termination of the production of the A380.
