It was reported that due to weak demand, Emirates is dropping its A380 service to JFK and replacing the aircraft with 777s. The A380s will instead be flying to Bangkok and Toronto (of course the official press release neglects to mention dropping the A380 on the New York route). Flightblogger has the disappointing details:
One industry expert with direct knowledge of Emirates’ JFK operations tells FlightBlogger that January and February load factors took a significant hit with several A380 flights operating with less than 100 passengers on board.
Yikes.
The Emirates A380. (Source: Emirates)
But this brings me to a bigger point about Emirates. According to this Airbus spreadsheet, Emirates has 4 A380s in service with 54 more to come. Meanwhile it has 70 A350s coming, and I believe the airline has some more 777s coming as well.
Am I the only one that finds these order numbers a bit unrealistic? I realize the A350s are still a few years away, but does Emirates really expect such strong demand? I’m not an expert on the airline by any means, and I’m wondering what others think. Leave your thoughts in the comments. 
How do you spell Cancellation Fees in French or Arabic? The A380 will be a noose round the neck of EU finances for the entire decade to come. Flying financial elephant or otherwise, I would still like to catch a flight o the A380.
I would not be surprised if this is designed to later own parts of the manufacturers. With Airbus and Boeing becoming very dependant on these orders and gearing up for them, cancellations could send them bancrupt. Then the lesser evil would be to sell shares to the clients. This is highly speculative, but wouldn’t surprise me.