The first Singapore Airlines A380 lease is due to expire next year, and they have today announced they will not be renewing it. The aircraft will return to the lessor in October 2017.

A decision on 4 other A380's who's lease is due to expire shortly has not been made yet.

This will be the first A380 to be returned to a lessor, and will be a good test of the second hand market for the aircraft.

Is this the beginning of the end for the A380?

On the other hand they have a few more brand new A380s in the orderbooks... Does that make sense? Do newer A380s have a better performance? I think Emirates was pushing Airbus for a A380neo with more efficient engines...

I think some of the early A380s had weight issues, so the newer frames may be slightly more efficient. I think its more a case of Singapore have over committed themselves and haven't been able to utilise as many A380s as they expected.

Right now, Emirates seem to be the only airline interested in the A380neo though, so it looks unlikely to happen for the time being.