Go Back  PPRuNe Forums > Misc. Forums > Airlines, Airports & Routes
Reload this Page >

British Airways to buy 12 A380s

Wikiposts
Search
Airlines, Airports & Routes Topics about airports, routes and airline business.
View Poll Results: Should BA order the B747-8i?
Yes
423
26.93%
No
603
38.38%
Who cares?
545
34.69%
Voters: 1571. This poll is closed

British Airways to buy 12 A380s

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 28th Sep 2007, 13:26
  #61 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Potomac Heights
Posts: 470
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Slots used for an A380

BA states that one its reasons to select the A380 is to gain greater capacity at slot-limited airports such as LHR. It was my understanding that the A380 had wake turbulence issues, and that spacing distances behind it needed to be enlarged. This would suggest that the A380 might need to use 1.5 or 2 standard heavy slots per takeoff/landing.
Has this issue been resolved? Will the A380 require greater spacing? Or will it be able to trade slots on a one-for-one basis with a 744/777/340?
SeenItAll is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 13:46
  #62 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: any town as retired.
Posts: 2,182
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Apron Slots and or runway slots

Both in short supply, so assuming T5 is the only parking for the 380, how long before another opr arrives with a 380.

glf
Gulfstreamaviator is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 14:04
  #63 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: UK
Age: 59
Posts: 2,712
Received 5 Likes on 5 Posts
There are now some (not sure how many) 380 compatable stands in T3, aren't there?

Surely SQ and QF (and EK?) will be along with theirs before BA's even enter the assembly building?
Wycombe is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 14:21
  #64 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 312
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
4 A 380 stands at T3 are already there. BA has exclusive use of T5 and will continue to operate some flights through T3 as T5 is too small for them from the outset. No other operators will be able to move A 380s into T5.

Nobody should worry about the A 380 being too big for BA. They could profitably use half a dozen today. If anything , as above, the current model is too small and it doesn't come into its own until stretched.

As far as Terminal handling is concerned , it is no worse that the simultaneous arrival of a 747 and 737 and that's happening all over the world all the time, so no worries there either.
Skylion is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 15:33
  #65 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: UK
Age: 80
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Staff travel

Who are you kidding.

It will probably mean more club & first class, so unless you are using a freebie with upgrade entitlement, you will probably still not get on.
hautemude is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 16:07
  #66 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Milton Keynes
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I thought the A350 was a better contender than the 787 too, with proven technology
Are you insane, or is technological development just passing you by?

787 is a leap ahead of the A350, which looks a bit yesterday by comparison.

I'm sure Lord Brabazon would agree with YOU though.
BeViRAAM is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 16:11
  #67 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Camp X-Ray
Posts: 2,135
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thats a bold statement given that the A350 design has barely been finalised.
Hand Solo is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 18:18
  #68 (permalink)  
PersonalTitle to help support PPRuNe against legal bullying.
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: France
Posts: 134
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Well said Rainboe

At last some common sense on the real impact of the 380 over its lifetime. I wish more people took the long term view.
tallsandwich is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 21:44
  #69 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: UK
Age: 58
Posts: 3,497
Received 162 Likes on 87 Posts
2hr turnrounds????

Taildragger67

A bit optimistic that don't you think.

The majors struggle to turn a 777-300 round in 2hrs.

And when will they be getting the TLC they undoubtedly will need in the 2hr turn round. And from whom? http://http://www.pprune.org/forums/...d.php?t=282844

TURIN is online now  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 21:48
  #70 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: HKG
Posts: 1,410
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
CX regularly, to schedule, turn 777-300's round in 1hr
BusyB is offline  
Old 28th Sep 2007, 22:18
  #71 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: UK
Age: 58
Posts: 3,497
Received 162 Likes on 87 Posts
Not at LHR they don't.

It's all very well throwing hundreds of low wage cleaners etc on board back in HKG, but at LHR?

I can't see BA paying for 45 cleaners to muck out a 380 even if they are min wage Eastern European students.

The IFE takes 2hrs to boot up.
TURIN is online now  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 05:55
  #72 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Middlesesx
Posts: 2,075
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Turin
Very good point and correct BA will like most Euro carriers not pay for that many more cleaners. Greatest source of compliant in the global pax monitoring is dirty aircraft interiors. It will never turnaround at LHR in under 4hours for the firrst 5 years by which yime BA will be only a name of part of another larger airline.
HZ123 is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 09:11
  #73 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: london
Posts: 379
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
A380 Engineering/LHR.

Single-shift segmented checks only, exploiting schedule lull. See CX/QF/SA, LHR today. If new bays are to be erected around TBD they will displace Britannia/Comet bays, fit only for English Heritage. A380 tear-down from c.2020, will be far away. The impelling logic is in factories serving all OneWorld - "I do this, you do that". See ATLAS, DC-10, 1970. No carrier, not embedded in Heavy Engineering, would enter it for a small fleet. See Lord King and catering: "I want to eat bread in my cabin, but I don't need to bake it."
Please exorcise "cheap-labour": HKG/SIN are not low-labour-cost, LH/Beijing is not, and the rest of China soon won't be. But their Heavy Maintenance Visit-expense is lower than LHR/HAM/CDG, due to lower cost of land, energy, and their 24-hr. activity. BAA and nearby landlords do not want any of that noise and dirt, and charge, wounded-bull, for their land-asset. See the Hatton Cross caterer: now a warehouse, whose pickers don't picket. BAMC won 747 over more distant sites because BA extracted EU dole for ex-coalminers, while employing none. The fulcrum for all -8- types is the Orient, which is where they will be Heavied.
tornadoken is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 12:23
  #74 (permalink)  
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Derbyshire, England.
Posts: 4,091
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
"Frankly I am surprised at the shere short sightedness of the number here who have denigrated it and assumed there was no room for it in the future, and predicted failure".

Still dreaming then Rainboe? From a commercial standpoint the A380 is a dead duck, a dinosaur, but possibly a technical success.
As has all been said before, the A380 fills a niche market that the airlines won't deny. BA's recent order confirms this, 12 to 17 aircraft is not a fleet replacement, BA have operated in excess of 50 B744.

The B744 replacement is not the A380, it is the B777 family and to a lesser extent the A330 and A340-500 and A340 -600. In this respect it is fairly obvious that Airbus got it wrong. Assuming all major carriers order their niche market requirement, the A380 will still have a problem getting to 500 aircraft delivered, forget 1500. They still have a big problem to break even, it was once in the order of 270 aircraft but given late delivery and cost over-runs is now around the 500 figure.
Your surprise at so many of us having a pessimistic outlook for the A380 is only balanced by our disbelief at your apparently un-supported optimistic view for the future for the A380.

It is very unrealistic to compare the introduction of the B747 with the introduction of the A380. The B747 only had to compete with a few L1011, a few DC10 and some DC8 and B707 aircraft and even fewer, (sadly), VC10 aircraft, hardly comparable with today's aircraft market.

Commercially, the A380 is a dead duck.

Last edited by parabellum; 30th Sep 2007 at 11:02.
parabellum is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 12:50
  #75 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Blighty
Posts: 788
Received 87 Likes on 22 Posts
Tornadoken,

And again please, in English.
HOVIS is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 14:14
  #76 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: LGW
Posts: 231
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
OK I admit I was wrong on some of my posts elsewhere about BA going for the A380. Thanks to all for putting me right guys. Full credit to the team at BA for their work in getting the order approved and signed for. I was so sure that BA would buy the 747-800!

All I want to ask now is does this mean that VS will take their six aircraft on order?

I reckon now that BA have ordered the A380's other orders are sure to follow from airlines such as Cathay Pacific but what of the Japanese carriers?
Dan Air 87 is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 15:06
  #77 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Worldwide
Posts: 340
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
parabellum,

People might take you seriously when you read what is being replaced with the latest order.

"British Airways has today placed an order for 12 Airbus A380 and 24 Boeing 787 aircraft with options for a further seven Airbus A380s and 18 Boeing 787s."

That order is to "replace 34 of the airline's longhaul fleet and will be delivered between 2010 and 2014. The order, including options, will give the airline the ability to grow its capacity by up to four per cent per year and the flexibility to tailor its future capacity growth in line with market conditions."

Still another 37 744s to replace by around 2019, plus traffic demand between Europe and North America is predicted to have an average annual growth rate of 3.8%, Europe to Latin America of 4.6%, Europe to Africa and Middle East of 5.4%, and Europe to Asia Pacific of 6%, i.e. even on their lowest growth market, they should expect to achieve about 40% increase in demand in the next 10 years.

The aircraft BA are examining include the 787, 773ER, 748i, A380, A350XWB. The A330, A340, 767, 772, 772ER, 772LR, and 773 are not being considered.

It could be said that further longhaul orders are looking at 300+ seat aircraft, which would rule out further 787-8 & 787-9 aircraft as the existing order and options cover the 757/767 fleet with some growth.

Slots, be they terminal parking, landing, takeoff, enroute, do not have an infinite quantity. Frequency is not all the answer, the front end yield (where airlines make money) from operating a flight departing 3am somewhere and getting to the destination at 4 pm is useless.



BA fleet replacement cycle based upon 20 years of service per airframe.

BA will be announcing more orders in the future to replace eurofleet and long hauls aircraft when required.
Zeke is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 20:15
  #78 (permalink)  
Paxing All Over The World
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hertfordshire, UK.
Age: 67
Posts: 10,146
Received 62 Likes on 50 Posts
Originally Posted by Dan Air 87
All I want to ask now is does this mean that VS will take their six aircraft on order?
It will make no difference to VS. The choice of machine was important 40 years ago when the Jet age was starting but now, the pax do not care what the machine is - they want it to be cheap.

There will be a tiny number of pax who will say:
"I'll never go on that great big thing"
or
"I can't wait to go on that great big thing"

The greatest majority have no idea what 'thing' they are on - but they know exactly what price they paid.

Now, if VS can run the a/c on the LHR~JNB route so as to increase the seats per week, then they will consider it. That is, if their license is about rotations rather than seats per day/week.
PAXboy is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 21:51
  #79 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Long ago and far away ......
Posts: 1,399
Received 11 Likes on 5 Posts
PAXboy,

I have personally spoken to Virgin passengers who are not amused to sit in those stretched A340 cigar tubes and watch them bend noticeably in turbulence. At least one couple have said they will use 777s where they can.
MrBernoulli is offline  
Old 29th Sep 2007, 22:45
  #80 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: London, New York, Paris, Moscow.
Posts: 3,632
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Bla bla bla

......Funny that, I've been unfortunate enough to sit in a 738 and see it do the same thing.....it certainly does make you think "did I just see that?"
glad rag is offline  


Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.