No More A380

Airbus Terminating A380 Program in 2021

Dreamliner wins, I guess...

v6,
boNes

Boeing made the right call. They made thr plane rhat thr airlines need vs. What the airlike maker think they need.,

Yep, and that's why they built the 747. Juan Trippe of Pan AM wanted it.


Wheels

Interesting...


How Boeing Lured Airbus Into Now-Busted A380

Well, not really. The Airbus competitor to the 787 is the A350, not the A380.

This whole thing ignores the general decline in passenger comfort though.
The 787 was designed to cram as may people into the smallest tube possible, so while an aviation technological marvel, it it no more than a torture device if you're a normal 6'2".

Building the A380 made Airbus take their eye off the ball and spend billions on A380 that could have gone toward A350.

I think you'll find those 'billions' were 'conjured out of thin air' Euros, so don't really count.
Please don't think I'm anti-Boeing, as the best long-haul coach class comfort has been in B747 and B777.
The B787 is just designed to cram them in. Is there any airline that operates coach class in less than 9-across seating in the B787?

Having flown on the 380 and the 787 I can say they are both effing horrible machines, at least if you are "cattle class". The old DC9 was better.

Didn't the A380 require significant upgrades tp airports to accommodate the a/c?

[quote=KraziKanuK]Didn't the A380 require significant upgrades tp airports to accommodate the a/c?[/

Yup, mine.

16 Apr 2015 · "We made significant investments to expand Copenhagen Airport and upgrade its facilities in order to make it A380-compatible," adds Copenhagen Airports' CEO Thomas Woldbye

But I guess it will still be flying another 20 years like the 747...

T

Indeed.

On any airport, many taxiways are not allowed to the A380 (300 sold). 747-800 (100 sold,+ 50 747-800F freighters !!) has the same restrictions, and 777 (1500 sold !!!!) has some too. Where A380 and 747-800 are the worst is for parking, the width means they need special stands, the two decks mean they need 3 jetways for an efficient turn around.

But what really killed 380 are regulations. 4 engines made no more sense when twins were allowed to cross pacific ocean in a straight line, being further than 3 hours of the most suitable airport after an engine failure (see ETOPS rules). Coincidentally it happened right when the 380 was introduced.

A380 is a great ride for its passengers (except Qantas' I guess ? , at least in europe passengers seem happy ), but its operations costs make it less interesting for airlines accountants than 777 series (now 787 and 350).

787 is on its way to be a success (need to deliver twice as many, but they are already ordered) but 747-800 was a failure, 777 was a big success and 330 was too, A350 maybe, too early to know yet, 787 and 777-X being a threat.

380 could have become a success if airports were more restrictive with flight slots. As long as you can accommodate point-to-point connections, medium sized aircraft are the reasonable choice. Once that you need to accommodate rising passenger numbers with a limited supply in daily flight connections, hub and spoke connections are more efficient, where hub-to-hub flights would require rather large machines. So, the 380 is good for the population living near airports, but not necessarily for the airlines operating them.

How is flying on an A380? Is it worth the experience or is it not much different from any other transatlantic aircraft?

same experience and a plane full of people including their pets

Just like any other cattle class.

Except more and more people are bringing on their “service” animals.

while they may not have done well with the a380, the a350 is an incredible machine and is eating up the sales of not only the a380 but many of boeing's aircraft as well.

the a350 is probably the best airplane in existence at the moment, and i say this as someone who dearly loves the 777 and 787's. boeing has a lot of work to do to catch up to it. their new 737's are a joke and the entire series needs to be scrapped or redesigned from the ground up. boeing keeps stretching them trying to compete with newer boeing and airbus models and it's not working. they're not as efficient, they have horrendously outdated cockpit layouts, less passenger comfort, the systems aboard the aircraft overall while perhaps updated are still hopelessly obsolete.

sad to see the a380 go, but maybe it'll enjoy a new life as a superfreighter some day.

Very low noise levels on the upper deck at least.




The 350 is actually heavier and less efficient than the 787. The 787, though, has been designed with «cattle transport» in mind, and is not as comfortable to fly on.

Agree that the 737 design has been stretched too far. The NG should have been the last iteration to fly on the original 1967 FAA type certificate! New LCD screens in the cockpit and slightly less thirsty engines do not make for a good new aircraft. Even so, Boeing has a backlog of I think 5000 of the things!

Well the A350 is a larger plane. It fits in between the 787 and 777, which is why it often competes against both for numerous airlines.

I am amazed that the 737 MAX is as good as it is though. But yes, ideally a new plane should have been designed. I recall that was the plan but Airbus was about to launch the A320Neo series and Boeing would loose out by 3-4 years and loose a lot of market share. Now they're going after the 757 market and 767 market with the 797. Seems like Boeing is loosing out to the A321Neo / LR. I know they're not exactly 757 replacements, but it is currently the closest thing on the market.

If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going.

Isn't that the noise made when a guitar sting breaks?

Hey OG last time I was on a B787 it was nothing special. I got the flu from a coughing rude Frenchman. Prick! KL to Paris.