Budget airlines could save the Airbus A380 superjumbo

In the 10 years since the mammoth Airbus A380 first took the air, the superjumbo has not become the game-changing aircraft the company had originally hoped it would be.

Although Airbus has taken 317 orders for the jet, the company has struggled to expand its customer base past the dozen or so airlines that currently operate the airplane.

And nearly half of those orders are by a single airline — Emirates.

Now the company has to contend with a new problem.

What happens to the early production A380s as they head towards the end of their leases?

According to Robert Wall of the Wall Street Journal, Airbus believes the solution to this problem is budget long-haul airlines.

Kiran Rao, head of strategy at Airbus's commercial plane making division, told the Journal that a likely destination for second hand superjumbos is airlines looking to fly high volume of passengers in a low-cost setup.

For these airlines, Airbus would pack the double-decker with 600-650 seats in a two-class setup, with an ideal flying distance of 6-8 hours. In more extreme situations, the company can even set the plane up to handle as many as 800 passengers.

According to the Airbus executive, the target region for this strategy is in the Asia-Pacific market, where low-cost carriers are currently using smaller widebody airliners, such as the Airbus A330.

So how much demand is there for a sardine-setup superjumbo — "high density" seating, in industry parlance? Rao believes there is room in the market for 40-50 of these second-hand A380s.

Thus, Airbus may be able to accomplish two objectives with this strategy — find homes for used A380s and expand the plane's customer base.