Its pretty well axiomatic that the peak of anything, oil, fish, copper or aircraft, will come at the moment when its development has reached a level never experienced before.
While Airbus was building the A380 I had a little bet with myself that it would fly but it wouldn't go into servivce as Peak Oil killed off mass international travel and the peak Plane built to service it.
Well, I lost that one, but not, apparently, by much. Qantas moves raises questions over Airbus A380's future in economic downturn.
Having crowed last year about being among the first airlines to buy the A380s, Qantas has now become the latest in a long line of carriers - others include Air France, Lufthansa and Emirates - to defer, cancel or reduce the role of the aircraft.
Emirates put it on the north Atlantic and last month hauled it off again for lack of traffic. If it can't work there, it can't work anywhere.
They fly two of them into Auckland about 4 times a week, half an hour apart. They are great to watch, but I'm not betting on them being up there much longer.
Aicraft are the modern equivalent of the pyramids, they have never made a cent on balance since the C47's of the postwar era were bought at cents on the dollar to start this mass travel game. They exist to show the world a nation's technological prowess, just like the pyramids.
The only difference is that in the old days you had to round up the tourists/slaves and bring them to Egypt to stand in awe at the great monuments, then get down to building an even bigger one, these days we just fly the monument to your place.
And at the end of the empire the monuments are the biggest of all, then they vanish. Comming soon to an airport near you.
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