Another reason is that the A380 came first, and Airbus started receiving orders for it, what, 3 years before it was even known that there would ever be a next 747? And then, if you really wanted one big plane, the A380 would have been available much earlier than the 747-8 (it was supposed to be available much earlier that it finally was, but airlines didn't know that)
When a new durable product cover an unattended but limited niche, it tends to sell a lot early in its life cycle. In those cases, the innovator (the first to offer the product) tends to win a great advantage over the competition.
Very likely there were cases where the airline would have considered whether to buy a 747-8 or an A380, except that there was no 747-8 to consider and, it top of that, Boeing was strong dropping "enlarged" 747 projects one after the other and claiming that there was no market for the super-jumbo airplanes.
By when the 747-8 came into the game, most of the currently served and pending orders for the A380 were already put, so most airlines that could have considered the 747-8 were already engaged with he A380.
I'd like to know how many orders for the A380 and for the 747-8 were put after Boeing started taking orders for the 747-8.
The above is for the passenger versions. For the cargo version the situation is different because the 747-8F has no competition.
When a new durable product cover an unattended but limited niche, it tends to sell a lot early in its life cycle. In those cases, the innovator (the first to offer the product) tends to win a great advantage over the competition.
Very likely there were cases where the airline would have considered whether to buy a 747-8 or an A380, except that there was no 747-8 to consider and, it top of that, Boeing was strong dropping "enlarged" 747 projects one after the other and claiming that there was no market for the super-jumbo airplanes.
By when the 747-8 came into the game, most of the currently served and pending orders for the A380 were already put, so most airlines that could have considered the 747-8 were already engaged with he A380.
I'd like to know how many orders for the A380 and for the 747-8 were put after Boeing started taking orders for the 747-8.
The above is for the passenger versions. For the cargo version the situation is different because the 747-8F has no competition.
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