If you live under the London Heathrow flight path then the A380 makes a lot of sense. Despite many airlines operating point to point services rather than hub an

If you live under the London Heathrow flight path then the A380 makes a lot of sense. Despite many airlines operating point to point services rather than hub and spoke there are places like London Heathrow where a lot of people want to get to and there are not enough plane slots for everyone. I do not believe that Heathrow is uniquely congested. These few airports, even if there are only five or so that have the same problems, are enough to necessitate some level of on-going A380 production. Simply put, without an A380 then you are not going to find it so easy to get the best Heathrow slots or enough of them for your passenger numbers. Ryanair won't be investing in A380s any time soon or planning to operate from Heathrow with other big planes but all of the former 'flag' airlines that go into Heathrow have the best plane for the job in the A380. Incidentally I am amazed at how many more Airbus planes fly into Heathrow than Boeing. Particularly with the smaller jets, A320 size the equivalent Boeing planes seem relatively rare. Imaginably they are on a different flight path. I also fully expect that there are public relations companies with vested interests in saying that the A380 is doomed. I am sure there were public relations companies telling the world the plane was going to sell 4x more than it did. Despite the hubris of the market I am sure that there are some sensible people in Airbus that work to different market expectations than the salesmen and can appreciate the passenger perspective cited by yourself as well as the realities for folk who live in places close to the likes of London Heathrow. The demand is solid if not as big as first advertised and these big planes have a big future. Which is sad if you are green minded and consider the level of travel a bit silly.