Six years into commercial service, the Airbus A380 still has no access to India. But the world's largest passenger plane could soon find friendlier skies in the second most populous nation on the planet.
The A380 has been handicapped by an unofficial ban in India fueled by concern among regulators that the superjumbo jet would ease out local airlines serving the nation's biggest hubs. Rising passenger numbers and efforts to liberalize the aviation sector are changing that view.
When Airbus was developing the A380, it had envisioned the jetliner addressing the growing pains of bustling markets like India, which had to serve large numbers of people in airports with limited capacity. The A380 can cram 850 passengers in an all-coach configuration, transporting many more travelers without significantly adding flights. Airbus had even boasted of lower unit costs to fly the jet domestically when compared with the Rajdhani Express, India's high-speed rail service.
11/11/13 Gaurav Raghuvanshi/Wall Street Journal
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The A380 has been handicapped by an unofficial ban in India fueled by concern among regulators that the superjumbo jet would ease out local airlines serving the nation's biggest hubs. Rising passenger numbers and efforts to liberalize the aviation sector are changing that view.
When Airbus was developing the A380, it had envisioned the jetliner addressing the growing pains of bustling markets like India, which had to serve large numbers of people in airports with limited capacity. The A380 can cram 850 passengers in an all-coach configuration, transporting many more travelers without significantly adding flights. Airbus had even boasted of lower unit costs to fly the jet domestically when compared with the Rajdhani Express, India's high-speed rail service.
11/11/13 Gaurav Raghuvanshi/Wall Street Journal
