First A380 service Europe to Latin America ?

[el #]

Anyone wants to make a wild guess of by who and when this service will operate ?

Like most I'd be delighted to fly it once and see if can be more economical.

[bamcb38c]

will probably be with one of the gruppo marsens (aerolinas argentinas, air pulmantaur and air comet) aircraft whenever they get delivered. got no idea on the delivary schedules for these but should imagine maybe 2011/2012 or later. nobody lower down the order listhas any significant south american links that would realistically use the a380

[malagajohn]

you dont really believe that marsans will buy the 380?

even before the nationalisation of aerolineas argentinas , it was never likely

the big question is how much of marsans will still exist at the end of the decade

[wingeel]

Now this is info from Wikipedia, so read into it what you will, but the financial director of Iberia has mentioned that the A380 could be 'useful' on high density routes between Madrid and Central/South America. Could be a pointer to the future but Iberia have otherwise shown little interest, as far as I know.
The European operators who have ordered the A380, so far, are BA, Virgin, Air France and Lufthansa. Not aware of any South American interest as yet.

[akerosid]

I believe that FRA-GRU is one of the most lucrative routes on LH's network, so I'd consider that the most likely of all; I do believe that IB will, ultimately, get A380s and MEX/EZE will probably be the first two routes they use it on.

[GatoVolador]

Now this is info from Wikipedia, so read into it what you will, but the financial director of Iberia has mentioned that the A380 could be 'useful' on high density routes between Madrid and Central/South America. Could be a pointer to the future but Iberia have otherwise shown little interest, as far as I know.Iberia is in the process to decide the future of their long-haul fleet, that will probably imply the substitution of the A340s by the A330/350 starting in about 6-8 years. The A380 is also a feasible option which Iberia is considering very seriously. I wouldn't say that the have shown little interest. It's just that they want low prices and they never pretended neither to speed the process up nor show desperation for new aircrafts to Airbus. Some of their advisors said them that by March/April/May 2009 the price of an aircraft will have a very significant discount because of the low business-cycle, and they are just waiting to this moment. But anyway, Iberia has been studying the A330, the A350, and the A380 with interest. Any of these options or a combination of them could be absolutely feasible. In principle, by the end of the current year or during the 1st or 2nd quarter of 2009, Iberia will order the long-haul aircrafts.

Key elements are:
They need to close the design of their master plan 2009-2011 in order to know the number of aircrafts that they could need, etc.
They need to reach a new labor agreement with the crews because according to the costs associated to them, more or less routes will be profitable.
The have to close some deals such as...:
The Clickair-Vueling merger, because if the new Vueling "invaded" Madrid, then Iberia would make more emphasis in long-haul.
The AA-BA-IB ATI agreement, because they need to have plans for the US.
The BA-IB merger, because depending on how the new holding will manage both companies, MAD could need more long-haul or less.
The price of oil is still uncertain.
They want to know if AF takes the A350 or not by the end of this year, since AF is one of the main competitors of Iberia.By the way, it seems that a delegation of Iberia went to Toulouse in the first months of 2008 to know more about both the A350 and the A380.

[Torquelink]

They want to know if AF takes the A350 or not by the end of this year, since AF is one of the main competitors of Iberia. Only if they can get it with GEs :ok:

[sekant]

In case of a merger with BA, should that not influence Iberia's choice? Simply for a question of commonality and therefore of lowering costs (grouped purcchases, spares...)??

[bamcb38c]

marsens have bought the 380 (looms are in the process of being made for thier first aircraft) and thier delivary schedule is way infront of anything that iberia would get. i very much doubt that lufthansa will use their first few aircraft on a south american routeit simply doesnt warrant an aircraft with lufthansa's business orientated config for the 380.

p.s. havent updated my location in a while it should now read toulouse/hamburg

[el #]

How many 380s a small operator would need to operate eg MAD-GRU-EZE daily ? One could even do some direct and returns to GRU/EZE like every other day.. I guess 2, but then the AC/ would be underutilized ? How do you make for service when A/C is serviced ? What you've to do is lease 2 x 340 ?

Having some understanding of what kind of company marsans is (see air comet and handling of aerolineas argentinas so far) I think having them really order 380s and pay for it is surprising. They also failed to buy Spanair. I think the most likely they will have to resell the orders.

[bamcb38c]

you'd be very surprised at some of the operators currently in talks to buy the a380. this week two start-ups and a european budget carrier have started the config design stage.
as far as i am aware marsens have made all the required milestone payments in full and ontime for the first pair of aircraft (of six) although the mord on the street is that marsens have paid considerably under the asking price for these aircraft as they where originally schedualed for a cancelled order.

[MarkD]

startup buying a 380? I thought only existing Airbus operators were being entertained?