How could Airbus better tailor the A380 to the modern market?
Plain and simple, to meet current market requirements, Airbus can do pretty much nothing to make the 380 more &quot;current&quot;.
The technical improvements suggested do nothing to change the fact that the 380 is too big, that is, it has too many seats, thus not allowing enough flexibility in this market situation.
In addition to not addressing the main problem, they would need major re-design, except for the wheeltug, which on the other hand is questionable in it's economics: save 20 minutes on ground, haul extra weight for thousands of miles...
There is no sense in technologically further developing a model that has a major &quot;flaw&quot; in it's economics. There are no customers, or not enough at least, for 380neo.
PS: markets are fluid. It may very well be that in furure super jumbos are coming back, but at the moment it does not look like that. If SJ make a comeback, it'll prolly be with a clean sheet design.
PPS: idling outer engines does pretty much nothing for wake turbulence. Wake is &quot;caused&quot; by wings, not engines.