A380-800 driver,
In Japan we are getting ride of all our 747-400SR domestic configured aircraft (for that matter all our 747-400 both DOM and INT are going or already gone!!) and replacing them with the 777-300. The main reasons were the costs but more importantly the yields they could get out of the 777-300 were so much better compared to the bigger aircraft, also Osaka (Itami) no longer allows 747. Our 747-400SR have a config of 565 seats as opposed to the 777-300 514 seats (so the bean counters only lost 50ish seats a flight!). At the moment we run them about 10 to 15 times day between the major cities, Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka and occasionally to some of the other cities during the busy times and from what they reckon the 777 just makes a lot more sense for us then the bigger aircraft did.
So I am not sure if the A380 will work in Japan in a high dense config for a while yet. In the middle of the day, even the 777-300 on the busiest routes can be half empty at times!
SIA bring the A380 SIN-NRT daily, but I have taxied/called for clearance right behind them a couple of time over the last few months and they have called in POB's of 48 and 76, recently they have been in the hundreds.
I personally like PAXING on the A380, I really like the inside of it! but I think it has to be deployed on the right routes.....and at the moment it's great for staff travel
