Originally Posted by
tdracer
If that is remotely accurate, it's pretty damning - especially these two items:[h4]
I've not heard that the A380 itself was operationally troublesome, but if it is that's big - unless you have a spare A380 sitting around a cancellation means you need to come up with two replacement aircraft.
And €55 million to overhaul the engines? €11 million per engine(!) - which isn't much less than the cost of a new engine. Big engine overhauls typically cost a couple million/engine (obviously depending on the scope) - when it approaches the cost of a new engine, they'll usually scrap the engine...
At JFK we have 5 flights a night to Paris - 4 to CDG and one to ORY. The two daily A380's do have have more mechanical delays that the 772/773/789's that fly the other three routes. Not terribly worse in dispatch, but it's always flight 6/7 and 10/11 that go mechanical/suffer delays at least once a week. I don't track numbers but it's obvious that Ben Smith has someone who does. And with 500+ passengers on the A380 you notice the disruptions to schedule quite a bit more. The A380 is a great plane to fly and it will be sad to see it go - but AF really needs more standardized premium cabins to the US, Mideast, Asia and some African routes. I think the writing has been on the wall for a while. But what will replace them will be interesting to see - probably A350-10.