Etihad's A380 deployment further cements London as most popular A380 destination

London Heathrow is the world's most popular airport for non-local airlines to send their A380 to, and its position will be further cemented as Etihad Airways intends to operate two A380s from Abu Dhabi starting later in 2014. But when including local operators, it is Etihad's rival up the road - Emirates and Dubai International - that offers the overall largest number of A380 movements. Dubai accounts for 21% of all global A380 movements in May-2014 owing to Emirates and its position of having the largest A380 fleet. London Heathrow sees only 8% of global A380 movements, but when excluding movements from local airlines, Dubai falls to eighth place. Los Angeles and Hong Kong are also popular A380 destinations.

There are 128 A380s in service as of 07-May-2014, with one third of them operated by Emirates alone. While Airbus continues to deliver about two A380s each month, in the past year only British Airways became a new A380 operator. The latter half of 2014 will be busier with four new A380 operators: Asiana, Etihad, Qatar and likely Skymark. But after 2014, there are only three disclosed A380 operators, two of whom - Virgin Atlantic and Air Austral - are unlikely to take delivery of their A380s. 175 A380s remain to be delivered, over half of them to Emirates. That figure could change as airlines cancel A380s and Emirates eyes yet another A380 order, potentially with new engines.