The European aircraft manufacturer announced on Thursday (February 14) that Emirates was going to cut its A380 orders by 39 aircraft and has instead opted to order 40 new Airbus A330neo and 30 A350s.

Following these order changes, Emirates will still take delivery of 14 new A380s over the next two years with production of the superjumbo due to stop in 2021.

Tom Enders, chief executive of Airbus, said: “As a result of this decision, we have no substantial A380 backlog and hence no basis to sustain production, despite all our sales efforts with other airlines in recent years.

“The A380 is not only an outstanding engineering and industrial achievement [but] passengers all over the world love to fly on this great aircraft.

"Hence today’s announcement is painful for us and the A380 communities worldwide.

“But, keep in mind that A380s will still roam the skies for many years to come and Airbus will, of course, continue to fully support the A380 operators.”

The first commercial flight of the superjumbo only took place in 2007 when Singapore Airlines was the launch customer for the aircraft.