Jumbo jet faces a make or break year

Larger capacity aircraft will make a comeback when routes, terminal slots and so on become saturated with the ever increasing population and number of people flying.

Airbus rolled the dice on the A380 and crapped out. Expensive misread of the market to say the least

Airbus rolled the dice on the A380 and crapped out. Expensive misread of the market to say the least same can be said for Boeings 747-8, oil prices will eventually rise and if Airbus does decide to revamp the A380 with newer fuel efficient engines there will not be a plane that can match it in terms of weight carried/fuel used. considering Boeings 747-8 has only around 40 firm orders to and Airbus A380 around 100, id be placing my bets on AIrbus to pull through better than Boeing

The fact is, Boeing did most of the development on the 747-8 45 years ago. It wasn't a huge expense or a big risk to modify an existing airframe. Airbus ran into a bit of bad timing, bringing out the A380 just before the global financial meltdown. It's still a great hub-to-hub plane, and they'll do fine.

Challenge? Then drop the price. Problem solved.

"certain polar flights - where a two-engine jet may be less safe than a four-engine jumbo because of the lack of places for an emergency landing"

....only polar flights? I wonder where there is place for an emergency landing anywhere in the Atlantic or Pacific?

Actually, what is happening is that airlines are emphasizing less and less hub-to-hub flying and more emphasizing point-to-point flying even on long routes. As such, smaller widebody twinjets such as the Boeing 787, Airbus A330neo and Airbus A350XWB are starting to become popular.

Also, more and more travelers are preferring direct point-to-point routes, rather than going thru the extra hassle of transferring to connecting flights with hub-and-spoke routes. Now that 2-engine planes are getting closer to the distances covered by jumbo jets, there's less routes left exclusive to the jumbo domain, while smaller 2-engines could land in more airports without necessary runway expansions.

The technology of airplane engines is one of the most exciting and dynamic areas to advance, with new materials (primarily ceramic-based but some metallurgical) combining with advances in computer design capabilities to make much bigger and more powerful engines than were dreamed of in the past. The result has been that really large airplanes are able to fly really long distances on just two engines.

Two engines not only burn less fuel than 4, they also need less maintenance. Both factors have a huge influence on airline costs of operation. Some observers think that the era of “four holers” as aviation industry people call them, is over

....only polar flights? I wonder where there is place for an emergency landing anywhere in the Atlantic or Pacific?

Do a search on ETOPS: "Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards"

Different models are ETOPS rated for different lengths of time (in minutes) they can be away from the closest usable airport in case of an engine failure. The 777 received ETOPS 330 certification in 2011, and the 787 received ETOPS 330 certification in 2014, meaning they can fly anywhere that allows them to get to a large enough airport up to 5 1/2 hours after an engine failure. There's not too many places on the Earth that don't have a large airport within 5 1/2 hours flight.