Guests board the Airbus A380 during a stopover at the Shanghai Pudong airport in Shanghai November 24, 2006. The world's largest commercial airliner arrived in Shanghai for its last leg of a 10-day trial flight on Thursday evening.  [Reuters]

The Airbus A380 superjumbo flew home Friday after stopovers in three of Chinese mainland's biggest cities, visits symbolizing the company's ambitions in the booming Chinese market, where the outlook for the colossal jet is mixed.

The 555-seat plane visited Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai on a swing through China this month, part of the process of winning its air-worthiness certification. It left Shanghai on Friday for its home base in Toulouse, France.

While technically a flight test, the visit gave Airbus the chance to generate buzz that it hopes will translate into orders.

"It's a technical exercise, but it doesn't hurt that it's occurring in a country which Airbus sees as a natural market for the aircraft," said Richard Pinkham, a Singapore-based analyst with the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation.

Despite world-leading growth in China's aircraft market, just five of Airbus's 166 orders for the A380 have come from China, all from Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines, one of the country's big three carriers. Neither of the other two, flag carrier Air China and Shanghai-based China Eastern, have announced plans for orders.

That's certainly not from lack of trying on Airbus's part. The company's sales of its smaller aircraft have cut deep into archrival Boeing Co.'s former dominance of the Chinese market.

Yet, some analysts see the double-decker A380 as a poor fit for China, where the demand for frequent, direct flights calls for smaller planes.

"For its size and growth rates, China is arguably the least important A380 market," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with Teal Group Consulting in Fairfax, Virginia.

Not necessarily, said Pinkham. The big-city markets of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou are seen as ready-made for the A380 because of their massive populations.

"With big, concentrated metropolitan areas, there is a huge local market, so you dont need to rely on feeder services from other cities to fill the aircraft," Pinkham said. "There's no doubt that a route from Shanghai to Los Angeles, or Beijing to London could fill an A380."

Given the uncertainty, the A380's success in China may depend heavily on the impact it has on China Southern's business, which lags behind its rivals on long-haul international routes.

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