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A380 back in demand.


Garfly

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The article is a bit narrow in its discussion highlights. No mention of Airbus considering a freighter conversion. But the bottom line is the A380 is an expensive-to-run aircraft, with a poor cargo conversion capacity.

I think Airbus took their eye off the ball, and only considered the carriage of huge numbers of pax as their main goal, when they designed the A380.

But Boeing were more considered in their planning thought train, and the Boeings are far better suited to cargo conversion, or a pax/freight mix.

 

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/exclusive-airbus-floats-concept-for-a380-freighter-conversion

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LARGE planes have an efficiency advantage (scale effect) but you have to FILL them or you are losing money.  There's been plenty of B 747 cargo ops but most operators were glad to get rid of B 747's although They are a favourite of mine from a Passenger viewpoint.. I think TWO engines is pretty universal  these days to get seat cost down. Nev

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The problem with making new designs is the lead in time from marketing getting the pre orders to the drawing board to V1. Years pass and during that time the world changes from one way of moving humans to another.

 

A better mouse trap has been built!

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I’m not an airline economist , and I doubt if there are any on this site , but I do know that Alan Joyce CEO Qantas has stated many times  that the DFW- SYD non stop service could only be operated profitably by a A380 . The DFW and LHR services were Qantas’s biggest earners , both operated by the A380 . They do need to be flown at almost max capacity , although that wasn’t always the case with DFW -SYD , but filling them was never an issue on those routes . Slots at LHR are rare and ultra expensive , so large capacity aircraft really come into there own at these airports , basically uplifting double the capacity of large twin aircraft . 

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  • 8 months later...
On 27/10/2021 at 7:14 AM, yampy said:

Slots at LHR are rare and ultra expensive , so large capacity aircraft really come into there own at these airports , basically uplifting double the capacity of large twin aircraft . 

If you mean landing timeslots - I thought the landing fees at LHR were per-passenger, which would mean higher passenger counts have no advantage.  Are there maybe other charging components that give bigger aircraft some advantage?  I'm sure there are LOTS of charges, for everything imaginable!

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Slots in pairs cost huge bucks in place like Heathrow! They are often traded between Airlines. Syd is constrained by the BS whingers around the drome! Inefficiency is something g Australia is good at!   

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My understanding was that the scarcity of slots at LHR factored significantly in the original business plan for A380 development, but the global decline of the hub and spoke airport model hastened its demise.   There are still opportunities for capacity rather than frequency for specific point to point operations mostly in long haul and Emirates are clearly banking on them. 

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