Fiirst time on a A380
 

I shall be flying to London (LHR) next month and its the first time on a A 380 for me.Now my question is ,will it be any longer disembarking than from say a 757?

Not in my experience - 4 flights. Bearing in mind that there are a lot more pax, I'd say that it was pretty much equivalent.

A few A380 flights recently, upstairs and down. Always 3 jetties which equates to about 160 pax per jetty. I have been on 757s with 200 odd (and 321s) with only one jetty so A380 often quicker.

I'm into double figures on the A380 and no delays either getting on or off. My experience is only on the top deck but as has been pointed out before there tends to be more exits pro rata that a 737!

Way back when in 2010, first time we flew into Heathrow on the A380 - the number escapes me, it was the first SQ of the day.

Anyway, upon arriving at T3 back when there were only a few A380 stands and after a bit of waiting we were told that another aircraft had got our gate and we'd have to go onto one with only a single air bridge. Sure enough the three bridge gate next to us had a SAS 737-600 plonked on it. Once the doors were opened it took an eternity to get off, first all the premium cabins then the lower deck economy cabin and then the upper deck economy cabin (where we were), someone however decided that us unwashed economy passengers weren't allowed to walk through the premium cabins to leave so we had to slowly filter down the spiral staircase at the back before walking the full length of the lower deck. All in all it took about an hour to get everyone off. Thankfully those things don't happen very often!

Thankfully A380s only use major airports, imagine being at the back of the immigration line if you'd arrived on a small Greek island.

Old Pax
Have flown on numerous A380 flights predominantly with EK and always up stairs, and have never had an issue with exiting A/C. However I have noticed it takes a little longer on a two class A/C where Business class is at the back on upper deck but nothing to really concern me. Have a good trip.

Thank you all.

Having had to wait two and a half hours for bags at Heathrow Terminal 3 coming in from Dubai on EK, I'm avoiding A380s as much as I can.

Surely that is just a reason to avoid LHR and not a certain type of aircraft? When I worked at LHR I would fly up and down to EDI regularly. Usually I had no checked in bagggage, but now and again I did. After 4 flights in a row with a bag (all on the last flight of the day which was an A321) where it had taken 70-90 minutes to get my bag I decided I'd no longer travel with a bag. I don't avoid A321s.


For the record, my A380 experiences have all been fine, but then I have always used them at airports where A380 suitable gates were in use (HKG, PEK, DXB, LHR, CDG) and never had to offload using stairs or single jetties.