A380 Birmingham(UK) to Dubai with 618 Passengers August 07 2023
I was told by a friend that that the airline he worked for looked at the A380 but passed because of the lack of belly cargo capacity. On some flights the airlines existing 777 belly cargo covered the cost of the flight. The pax fares were pure profit
Not a scheduled service but operation Solomon. 1088 pax on a 747. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solomon
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A380 has always been very popular with passengers and indeed myself. Long term user with EK/LH/SIN and enjoy flying it on all these carriers. I have not tried BA or Korean but maybe on BA to Joeburg with them next spring, but overall excellent A/C for passengers, but maybe not for the accountants.
Cheers
Mr Mac
Cheers
Mr Mac
I think that 618 Pax could well be a UK record for the most number of Passengers carried on a Scheduled Commercial flight from the UK.
(likely 615 + 3 Infants, or Staff on Jump Seats)
I do appreciate this is a standard EK 2-Class A380 config, so this load may have already happened, but just not recorded by the Skipper as such as seen here.
I have never heard of anything else coming close apart from the Corsair 747-300 Charters in the past, which IIRC held 587.
At Virgin Atlantic, 747-123 G-VMIA regularly lifted off from LGW to MIA, or to MCO with 488 Pax, + any amount of Infants, plus up to 4 Staff on the Jump seats.
So, with the Crew, she held well over 500 at a time.
(likely 615 + 3 Infants, or Staff on Jump Seats)
I do appreciate this is a standard EK 2-Class A380 config, so this load may have already happened, but just not recorded by the Skipper as such as seen here.
I have never heard of anything else coming close apart from the Corsair 747-300 Charters in the past, which IIRC held 587.
At Virgin Atlantic, 747-123 G-VMIA regularly lifted off from LGW to MIA, or to MCO with 488 Pax, + any amount of Infants, plus up to 4 Staff on the Jump seats.
So, with the Crew, she held well over 500 at a time.
Every SAT and SUN morning - LPL MME IOM BHX LBA - 5 x VC8's all full (lots of Long Haul interliners arriving in early at LHR)
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The major financial issue with the A380 for airlines is the lack of cargo capacity. It carries so many passengers that when all their baggage is loaded there is no remaining physical space in the hold for any cargo. Typically the B744 when carrying 340 passenger on a 6 or 7 hour flight could lift between 15-20 tonnes of freight.
LOL - quite, on our BMA Viscounts out of LHR we thought we were rocking it with a full load of 73 on board (74 with a 'staff-ie' on the flight deck)
Every SAT and SUN morning - LPL MME IOM BHX LBA - 5 x VC8's all full (lots of Long Haul interliners arriving in early at LHR)
Every SAT and SUN morning - LPL MME IOM BHX LBA - 5 x VC8's all full (lots of Long Haul interliners arriving in early at LHR)
Once stood all the way from Inverness to Sumburgh in a Viscount too but that was because there was no jump seat installed.
Isn't the curvature of the hull also a constraint? I'm sure I've read somewhere that it's not optimal for airfreight containers.
The major financial issue with the A380 for airlines is the lack of cargo capacity. It carries so many passengers that when all their baggage is loaded there is no remaining physical space in the hold for any cargo. Typically the B744 when carrying 340 passenger on a 6 or 7 hour flight could lift between 15-20 tonnes of freight.
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What I find interesting is the fact that on the first flight the final reserve fuel is 28 min, the other 27 minutes…
or is the 5.0T at the end 30minutes?. (As a boeing guy 👨🏻✈️ I am used to number 30 min behind the finalreserve)
or is the 5.0T at the end 30minutes?. (As a boeing guy 👨🏻✈️ I am used to number 30 min behind the finalreserve)
The first time was in Economy. It was so spacious that there was no need to fly Business.
Last year I noticed that they had converted the front upper deck, where First Class used to be, into Economy. I thought I would give it a try as the seating was just 2 abreast on the window side. It was bloody awful.
I then realised that they had removed the 14 First Class seats and replaced them with no less than 91 (yes 91) economy seats. It was like Ryanair.
The only good thing was that they had left the First class toilets alone. It was far more comfortable to sit in there than in my allocated cramped seat!
God knows what the rest of economy is like nowadays. Emirates are obviously trying to cram in as many as possible.
So for me it’s back to business with its own bar and spacious seats.
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I then realised that they had removed the 14 First Class seats and replaced them with no less than 91 (yes 91) economy seats. It was like Ryanair.
The only good thing was that they had left the First class toilets alone. It was far more comfortable to sit in there than in my allocated cramped seat!
The only good thing was that they had left the First class toilets alone. It was far more comfortable to sit in there than in my allocated cramped seat!
I'm 6'2", and I've sat in the 2 seats on the upper deck. Leg room was fine - to compare to Ryanair is laughable.
I consulted the purser about the actual number of economy seats in the previous first class cabin and the figure was 120. The purser told me that they had also extended these economy seats into part of the business class section and reduced the number of business class seats by about 20 or so.
Emirates have been modifying their A380’s so it depends on which individual aircraft you are talking about. They are not all the same.
Clearly Emirates are cramming in as many economy passengers as they can.
See the plan here on Seat-guru https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Em..._Two_Class.php.