Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) is keen to secure orders from Emirates (EK, Dubai International) for additional A380-800 aircraft in a bid to keep the superjumbo in production, reports Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources. Anything less than an order for twenty aircraft at the Dubai Air Show later this year could reduce output to even less than the one per month which is slated to start in 2018.

The manufacturer hopes that an updated version of the A380 featuring winglets and a modified fitout, creating space for an additional seats, will woo the Emirati carrier, which is by far its biggest A380 customer. Emirates operates ninety-five of the double-decker jets – out of a total of 213 A380s worldwide – and has an additional forty-seven on order.

Last month, Emirates denied rumours that it was in talks to place an order for twenty A380s for delivery starting 2020. "I want to know what Airbus will do with the aircraft," Aviation Week reports Emirates President Tim Clark as saying. "They need to put the A380s into other airlines."

Only two orders were placed in 2016 for the A380, down from three in 2015, twenty in 2014, and a record high of fifty in 2013. There have been no new orders so far in 2017.