Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
Once we start talking about cruise charters and Hajj flights as the raison d'être for the A380, it's all over ...
Would think that Dave is correct in his observation, the aircraft need to be at the end of their amortised life before they transit into low rate utilisation. In the mainline, the aircraft are covering around 4-4500 hrs per year. In the Hajj, they would drop below 2000 hrs a year in general. The variable costs will reduce but the fixed costs will become painful. Going to hi capacity makes a reasonable change in the fuel burn per seat mile, but the yield drops off.
The palace in the sky is expensive as a concept, but the yield is a fair offset. The airlines know what they are doing with yield management, so presumably the merit of changing the seat mix to maximise revenue while reducing the OEW would have been well researched. Reduction in the fuel burn really only comes about from optimising the Breguet formula, and possibly introducing tech stops enroute on routes that can accept that; flying SIN-LHR is considerably higher fuel burn than taking a tech stop in DXB or OMAA etc, even accounting for ground costs and the extra climb/descent.
Glad the analysis is not on my shoulders, the plane is still an impressive experience for the passenger, but in the end it needs to pay for it's fodder.