Posted on 01/28/2009 3:49:35 PM PST by decimon
LOS ANGELES — Every time Qantas lands one of its giant Airbus A380s at Los Angeles International Airport, parts of the nation's fourth-busiest airport come to a halt.
Service roads, taxiways and runways must be closed to airfield trucks, cars and other commercial aircraft as the world's largest passenger plane — with wings almost as long as a football field — arrives, departs and taxis with an official escort of operations vehicles.
The plane is so immense that air traffic controllers give it priority so it doesn't have to wait for takeoff at the end of the southern runways in cloudy or foggy weather because it can disrupt radio signals from the airport's instrument-landing system.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
When there are a lot in service, it would be funny if their overall cost efficiency was the same or less than current planes.
Double that number for more flights and the numbers really add up and this will not be pretty.
And by the way, do you like having to pay with taxpayers dollars the cost for rebuilding the terminal gates, taxiways and in some cases, the runways, to accommodate this one, single type of jet?
More is not better, and this wide-body mania will quickly de-evolve into a single class of service, mostly from the Pacific rim, and that 525 “typical” configuration will rise significantly.
Sorry, and I do appreciate your input on this, I see nothing but additional delays, aggravation and more cost due to this one type of jet.
Hey, those were great. That was my best laugh for the week. Thanks for the link.
Hopefully, they’ll be able to work that out and hire more people with that many more passengers passing through the system.
One would hope so.
Heck, I would be happy if they just staffed appropriately. Passport control is like the bank, lots of windows and hardly a person manning the desk. Thing is, it’s not like they don’t know when all these international flight arrive, they simply appear to not care.
Let us hope things improve.
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