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by Someone1234 2695 days ago
It is a well known fact. The 747-8 and A380 have collapsed in terms of new orders and both companies have acknowledge they lack a way forward.

To quote Boeing president of marketing Randy Tinseth:

> We don’t see significant demand for passenger 747-8s or A380s

The last major order for the 747-8 (28 aircraft) was in 2016 and 2014 for the A380 (13 aircraft). Enough to keep production alive for another few years, but after that it is unclear. And even then many of those are for cargo/freight, not people.

2 comments

Has Boeing stopped making 747-8F (freighter)? It was my understanding that a slower build rate of 747-8F would continue. Back in 2012 Boeing touted that half of all air freight was being moved by 747s [1]; I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Airbus would make a freighter version of the A380 to exploit it's greater lift capacity.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20121011082258/http://www.boeing...

For cargo, the 747 variants are doing ok. The A380 has some problems with being a cargo plane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCJrg7j8Uag
They have 24 open orders and are making 0.5 a month. 767 has 111 open orders for freighters and aerial refueling tankers. Both are on their last legs.
Emirates ordered 20 confirmed + 16 options only last year: https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-orders-36-a38...

But it seems likely they will be the end of the line.