Last A380 Leaves Assembly Hall
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Here in the land of ULH, the rumour mill is telling us Qantas are prepping their A380s for a return to passenger service. Exactly what role is anybody's guess at this moment i.e. will it be just bubble traffic, will it incorporate "socially distanced" seating, perhaps a combination of both. I'm sure someone's done the numbers.
The rumour actually is that Qantas are taking some necessary steps to keep the future options open. They have to perform gear swings, and there is a window of opportunity now to perform heavy checks that will be due quickly if the aircraft ever again flies. I wouldn’t get too excited about the prospect of the 380 operating QF services anytime in the next 12 months.
As I understand discussion on this thread QF A380’s, some QANTAS A380s will be ferried to LAX for gear swings so they can then be ferried to an MRO shop for a heavy check. If it is not done soon, the airframes will be only scrappable, no longer flyable. MRO shops have plenty of capacity, so that works together nicely.
What is not clear is whether this is because QANTAS expects to get (some of) the A380s flying again soon(-ish), or just Industrial Relations skulduggery.
Currently the QF A380 pilots are all on unpaid stand-down (they are accruing some leave benefits, though). If QF management publicly admit that some or all of the A380s are never going to fly in QF revenue service again, then those pilots affected can legally no longer be stood down, the Reduction In Numbers clauses in their Enterprise Agreement will be triggered. As most of the A380 pilots are top of the seniority tree, such a RIN would cause a cascade of cross-fleet displacements, retraining requirements and potentially redundancy of the least-senior pilots (almost all not on the A380). That would be hugely disruptive and immensely costly. Hence QF management has a huge incentive to maintain that the A380 fleet will come back. Only they no if this is true, wishful thinking or IR chicanery.
What is not clear is whether this is because QANTAS expects to get (some of) the A380s flying again soon(-ish), or just Industrial Relations skulduggery.
Currently the QF A380 pilots are all on unpaid stand-down (they are accruing some leave benefits, though). If QF management publicly admit that some or all of the A380s are never going to fly in QF revenue service again, then those pilots affected can legally no longer be stood down, the Reduction In Numbers clauses in their Enterprise Agreement will be triggered. As most of the A380 pilots are top of the seniority tree, such a RIN would cause a cascade of cross-fleet displacements, retraining requirements and potentially redundancy of the least-senior pilots (almost all not on the A380). That would be hugely disruptive and immensely costly. Hence QF management has a huge incentive to maintain that the A380 fleet will come back. Only they no if this is true, wishful thinking or IR chicanery.
Last edited by kiwi grey; 3rd May 2021 at 00:36. Reason: formatting
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I was curious about how many A380s are flying at the moment, and you can do a filter for that on FlightRadar24. I can see that Qantas A380 VH-OQC is active at Victorville, CA, the airport that serves the Southern California Logistics Airport in the Mojave Desert, where it has been in storage since July last year. It doesn't show a destination, but to be active on ADS-B suggests that it could be back on the job soon, doesn't it? Apart from that, I see seven A380s in the air, all Emirates flights to or from Dubai.
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It's a pity to see those 4 engined aircraft leave the scene.
I flew on 4 engines for 12 years until recently our 747s were taken out of the fleet.
2 engines are supposed to be just a reliable as 4 statistically.
But who cares about statistics?
I flew on 4 engines for 12 years until recently our 747s were taken out of the fleet.
2 engines are supposed to be just a reliable as 4 statistically.
But who cares about statistics?
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Statistically, if you have four of an engine vs. two of the same engine, you are more likely to see a failure among the four, before you see it in the two. But the difference is that a failure costs you 50% of overall thrust when you have two engines, vs. 25% when you have four ...
I believe the fact that the 777F can carry more payload at a much cheaper cost, as well as the 747-8 Freighter makes the case for an A-380 Freighter untenable. My airline ordered 10 A-380 Freighters, unfortunately, they were never built by Airbus and the orders expired.
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The 380 has always been an admittedly comfortable niche product. No revolutionary technical prowess however, it can't even fly a radius to fix RNAV approach, just a nicely built aircraft with a narrow profitability window.
It was a daring bet from the start trying to sell the required break-even number of such an expensive niche product. Any 380 freight conversion would set it up in a similar freight-niche, as tdracer demonstrated.
It will be the same daring adventure now to reactivate or convert these niche planes in an economic downturn where only versatile aircraft with a wider profitability window have prevailed.
We can all wish for a rapid recovery, especially for the pilot community, where profitability is second to offered space, but i guess that will remain wishful thinking at least for the near future.
It was a daring bet from the start trying to sell the required break-even number of such an expensive niche product. Any 380 freight conversion would set it up in a similar freight-niche, as tdracer demonstrated.
It will be the same daring adventure now to reactivate or convert these niche planes in an economic downturn where only versatile aircraft with a wider profitability window have prevailed.
We can all wish for a rapid recovery, especially for the pilot community, where profitability is second to offered space, but i guess that will remain wishful thinking at least for the near future.
Totally agree.
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"In 2002, Aboulafia co-authored with Aaron Gellman a Boeing funded report on the Airbus A380, released in 2004."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Aboulafia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Aboulafia
Boeing did the same mistake with the 747-8. So it wasn't that obvious beforehand that big airplanes would soon be in trouble. And the 747-8 has even the latest engines.
Honestly, there would never have been a 747-8 had not been for the the A-380. Boeing did the minimum to copper its bets, just in case their market appraisal was wrong.
Of course, we all know that 'straightforward' derivatives rarely wind up that way, plus they always cost way more than advertised.
Of course, we all know that 'straightforward' derivatives rarely wind up that way, plus they always cost way more than advertised.
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That's all she wrote: Airbus Will Convert The A380 Production Line To Build The A320 Family Airbus Will Convert The A380 Production Line To Build The A320 Family - Simple Flying
Care to elaborate?
