A380 could be saved?
 

Hi, just putting an idea out there for discussion.
The A380 with having so many seats in it, with the advent of Covid19, if that flew with vacant seats for distancing, how do the economics work out vs say a 777-300ER with seats not occupied for the same reason?
Could it work out that its more profitable to use the A380 on that basis.
I'm finding a burn of A380 12-13000kgs/hr 525 seats vs CX 777-300ER 8100kgs/hr 365 seats
However I don't know the proper comparison required, is it cost per seat per mile? and would have to work out the vacant seats for each to work out what could be occupied.

A more relevant question would be: if airlines load factors are to be reduced by a factor of two (or even three) to provide social distancing on board, can any airline afford to operate any of its aircraft ?

The A380 could be saved by an increasing demand for freight traffic.

The aircraft was designed to be a freighter as a new build aircraft (A380-800F), thus it would not be surprising that designs for retro modification of passenger aircraft are readily available.

Modification of a slightly older generation aircraft could be easier that cutting into more recent 'plastic' aircraft.

Also the double deck 380 could have advantages in multiple side loading doors and possibly for nose lift, although the latter might not be required or viable.

I think both Fedex and UPS looked seriously at the A380 and decided that the loading infrastructure required for the upper deck was not viable compared to existing fleets. Internal lifts were considered but the loading time was too long.

Guess what might have to change by a factor of two (or even three) in order to make this happen?

Safetypee, the A380 simply does not pencil out as an effective freighter. Aside from the difficulties of loading freight on the upper deck (which would require massive strengthening to carry a meaningful load), it's MZFW is far too low. Yes, it can carry the cargo a long way without needing to refuel but it can't carry much and the world air cargo market isn't built that way - it's based around max leg lengths of about 4,000 miles. Cargo operators would rather carry more cargo and make a gas stop than go non-stop over long distances. As it is, the A380 is limited to about 85 tons cargo, while the 777F can carry well over 100 tons and the 747-8F pushes 150 tons. Further, the location of the flightdeck makes a nose cargo door a non-starter.
Presumable, the A380F would have addressed the MZFW issue, but retrofitting built aircraft to increase the MZFW by 50 tons or more is simply not practical.

What Tdracer said... Airbus was told, they chose not to make it convertible to cargo ops....but they were warned!

And this is how Emirates made a killing with their 380 fleet..

More seriously I know for fact that some people are doing serious number crunching on that topic. No idea if it will actually turn into something viable.
​​​

DeltaT,

I think a more relevant question might be: Of the A380 fleet that was in service prior to the Covid crisis and now currently grounded, how many will ever fly again in revenue service.