Originally Posted by Globaliser
The 380 is basically aimed at the sort of route where some airlines already dispatch two or more 744s at the same time flying "wingtip to wingtip". If air traffic continues to grow at the rate at which it has, historically, there will be more and more of these routes. The big question for Airbus is whether that section of the market place is going to get big enough fast enough for it to recover its investment.
And of course the USAToday article indicates that the reason VS is delaying delivery has nothing to do with demand, but rather with the fact that one of the airports (LAX) out of which VS plans to operate the plane will not be ready in time. Because of the size of the airplane, airports need to widen their runways and modify taxiways and gate areas to accommodate the plane.