Two Buyers Interested in Private A380s

[Matt Molnar]

Bloomberg:

Two may buy private A380 superjumbos

By MASSOUD A. DERHALLY
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Airbus, maker of the delayed A380 superjumbo, is in talks with two potential buyers of private versions of the $300 million plane that the company calls the "flying palace."

"They are not customers until they sign, but there are two very interested parties," Richard Gaona, vice president of Airbus' executive and private aviation unit, said in an interview Monday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "It's going to be a private jet," Gaona said, adding that one of the customers was in the Middle East.

....

"Airbus could sell 400 Flying Palaces and it won't save the program," said Doug McVitie, managing director of Arran Aerospace, a Dinan, France-based consulting company. "Airbus won't make a lot of money on sales like this because these guys want everything done their own way, so with highly customized planes, you reduce by a large percentage the number of components Airbus could provide."

[Nonstop2AUH]

This is probably just a matter of time, there are some VVIP operators in the Middle East who are flying 747SPs and such that are some 30 years old now, and these guys like to have the newest and biggest money can buy - that will be A380...