A380 FAMILY

Taking a clean-sheet design for airlines’ operational needs of tomorrow, Airbus developed the A380 as the most spacious and efficient airliner ever conceived. This 525-seat aircraft will deliver an unparalleled level of comfort while retaining all the benefits of commonality with Airbus’ other fly-by-wire aircraft Families.
Airbus is the first jetliner manufacturer to be certified to international environmental standards ISO 14001, for full lifecycle coverage, including all products and manufacturing plants.

The Airbus' approach is based on an innovative Environment Management System, used to map, assess, track and minimize an aircraft's environmental impact throughout its life. This approach optimises environmental performance at any phase of the product life cycle.

The A380 has been a catalyst for innovative new technologies and a new way of "working together" across the industry. Airbus negotiates environmental requirements in contractual agreements with suppliers and actively spreads environmental best practices within the supply chain.

Airbus is also working hard to mitigate the impact of manufacturing on the environment with cleaner technologies and processes. Environmental management has been a major criterion for the A380 production facilities, optimising energy and water consumption, as well as waste and emissions.

Furthermore Airbus has developed innovative solutions to transport A380 components across Europe. The largest components use maritime shipment and river barges, which generate very little disturbance to the ecosystem. On the road, night time road convoys are using lorries equipped with high quality noise-reduction features.

Airbus' design philosophy is based on the whole life cycle of an aircraft, from the initial concept to its end of life. The A380 static test airframe will be used as part of a project to test procedures for decommissioning aircraft in the most environmentally responsible way. This will be the first time that an aircraft's pre-service testing has been taken through to the very end of its life.

The A380 burns 17 per cent less fuel per seat than today's largest aircraft. This is the most significant step forward in reducing aircraft fuel burn and resultant emissions in four decades. Low fuel burn means low CO2 emissions. In fact the A380 produces only 75g of CO2 per passenger and per km, almost half of the target set by the European Union for cars manufactured in 2008. With the A380, which offers more space per passenger in all classes, CO2 footprint per passenger has never been so small.

This progress is possible thanks to advances on many fronts. The A380 has an efficient structure that incorporates more new material than any other jetliner, with composite and other lightweight materials accounting for more than 25 per cent of its structure.

The A380 also benefits from the latest innovations in aerodynamics, reducing drag to the minimum and improving fuel efficiency further. Moreover, the A380 is fitted with new state of the art high by-pass engines that contribute to the overall reduction in fuel burn, reducing it to unprecedented levels.

These engines have been designed not only to meet the current regulatory limits (ICAO-CAEP 4) with significant margins but to be already in line with the most stringent future regulatory limits (ICAO-CAEP 6) in terms of NOx emissions.