A380 trip to show off jets strengths

MINNEAPOLIS — Airbus says a visit to Minneapolis by its A380 jet plane isn’t a sales call, but no one flies here in November for the scenery.

Northwest Airlines Corp. executives will look over the slow-selling A380 superjumbo during a visit to their home airport today.

The aircraft made its first commercial flight with 455 passengers last month, nearly two years late and billions of dollars over budget. Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell said the plane is flying from Airbus’ home in Toulouse, France, to Minneapolis, then Los Angeles, followed by Sydney, Australia. The trip is aimed at demonstrating the plane’s capabilities to airlines, airports and passengers, he said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an effort to convince them,” he said, referring to Northwest. “The aircraft really speaks for itself.”

Northwest seems like a perfect A380 customer, since the airline, along with United, flies more people to Asia than any other U.S. carrier, the kind of long-haul, high-volume flights the A380 is designed for. But Northwest is buying Boeing’s 787 instead, although its fleet includes 165 aircraft of other Airbus models. UAL Corp.’s United has also declined to order the A380.

Aerospace expert Richard Aboulafia said Airbus is probably flying the A380 around as part of a broader marketing effort and knows it has little chance of selling Northwest on the plane.

“They have a pretty good chance of selling them A350s and of course more narrowbodies anytime,” he said. “But A380s, that’s selling coal to people who have an oil-burning furnace.”

Airbus has booked orders for 165 A380s so far.

With 555 seats, the A380 is a good fit for airports with so-called slot limits on takeoffs and landings. But Northwest has relatively few flights at such airports. Runways at Minneapolis are big enough to handle the A380, though taxiways and some gates would need modification.

Airbus may be hoping Northwest reverses itself like British Airways did. BA said in January 2005 it wasn’t interested in the A380 for the time being, but in September it said it would order a dozen, along with 24 Boeing 787s.

“Northwest clearly has the routes where a 380 could possibly be appropriate. There’s enough from a salesman’s standpoint to just keep the issue on the table,” said Edmund S. Greenslet, an aerospace consultant at Airline Capital Associates Inc. and publisher of The Airline Monitor. “Maybe it doesn’t come to fruition for 5, 10 years. Who knows?”