Today, twin-engine airliners routinely fly routes that were once reserved for the jumbos, and those routes take them from one so-called “feeder” airport to another—“point-to-point” flights—bypassing the congested hubs, shortening travel time for passengers, saving money for the airlines, and—increasingly importantly to regulators and the flying public—reducing carbon emissions. Moreover, those smaller airliners are easier to fill with paying customers than the enormous A380. When the giant flew with only 70 percent of its seats occupied, it cost almost the same to operate as a full flight did.

Foreseeing the shift in the air travel industry, Boeing lost faith in the market for a superjumbo and in 1995 withdrew from discussions it had been having with Airbus about a partnership to produce a mega-airliner. Boeing eventually turned to the much smaller but enormously successful 787. Airbus continued alone.

Frank Vermeire defends the decision. “Every 15 years traffic doubles,” he says. “The problem is the biggest growth is at the major global hubs—London, Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore—which were already getting more and more congested. They were also unable to expand, so the only way to grow was to have larger aircraft delivering more people with each flight. The question was how to use the existing infrastructure more efficiently, and the only way to do that was with larger aircraft.”

Vermeire believes that, no matter how many hub-bypass routes there are, the mega-hubs still need the A380.