The A380 loads are holding up ok.
The aircraft ittself is all flash and new.
There are several engineering issues presenting themselves, although as I am not on fleet I do not know the specifics. However I am told from an area in the company that watches reliability that the aircraft is not performing as expected. I remmeber explaining to many old timers I flew with that the A380 lacked "conformity".
I explained the nature of the operating environment. Airports privately owned, airlines privately owned, competing financial pressures. To my mind a aircraft that departed from the known characteristics, including wingspan, gate requirements, pavement strengths, passenger loading areas etc may be in for a hard time. I was told in no uncertain terms that the same thing occurred when the 707 (100ish passengers) was replaced by the 747..That is true the logistics of the aircraft resulted in taxiway changes, aerobridge redesign, terminal upgrades etc.
The real difference this time is that the airline operating it and the airport receiving it are not owned by the government. In the case of the A380 LA airport has already stated that the aircraft is not suited when in their airspace..
Naturally all these issues were known. Engineering would have known, flight operations would have had an incling. No doubt airport and ramp would understand people and baggage logistics. Talking with cabin crew collegaues I was told the galleys are way too small and fail to cater for the reuirements of the cabin, insufficient space to tray up meals, no works space etc etc, I am certain none of the people who could have guided the process were ever really consulted. Another hallmark of tail wag dog approach...A benchmark of Q management since I began there
For the sake of all of us at the Q, I hope the aircraft works
Qantas Airbus A380 too big for Los Angeles airport | The Daily Telegraph
My concern is not the sort of tripe spun by idiots like Peter and the institute (Just what sort of institute is it...and who else besides him is in it??)
My concern is the business continues to ignore those professionals in their own field. You want to understand engineering process talk to your engineers, want to understand the logistics of cabin service, talk to cabin crew, want ot understand implications of operating to certain airports, talk to your pilots. There are numerous examples...
I fear the top down approach will not assist one iota surviving this downturn. It may be a little more than a cyclical downturn. If so, "management" prescribing any process without listening to those in the know (for the accountants-the pesky units of operational labour) then we are in for a very hard time.