If they fly just to Mecca during Hajj, then they could stack them in like cord wood............
Posted on 06/21/2017 9:01:23 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Airlines, it turns out, prefer the fuel efficiency of smaller planes like the Boeing 777 to the pack-em-in capacity of the Airbus A380. As a result, Airbus hasn’t scored any new orders for an A380 in more than a year.
Its big plan to turn things around? Launch a new version, make it cheaper to fly, and slap on some winglets.
This week at the Paris Air Show, Airbus announced the revamped “A380plus,” a refresh that packs even more passengers into the super-jumbo and tweaks the wing design. The upswept winglets found on most modern airliners boost fuel efficiency by eliminating turbulent air vortices at the wingtips, reducing drag and improving aerodynamics.
The winglets stand 15 feet tall, and the design includes downward extensions that add another 4 feet. They could improve fuel efficiency by a significant 4 percent and—along with other improvements—cut operating expenses by 13 percent.
...
he A380plus crams in 80 more seats by rejiggering the crew rest quarters and ditching the spiral staircase between the two levels in favor of a conventional one. The A380plus will carry 575 passengers in a four-class configuration.
(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...
A321 from St. Louis down to Florida.
Awful seats. Painful ride.
Hated every minute.
Boeing is betting on smaller, longer range aircraft for point to point air travel. Essentially reworking the hub and spoke airline model. Hub and spoke made sense back when the only long range aircraft were the jumbos.
That’s no longer true.
Give me Boeing or I ain’t going...
Give me Boeing or I ain’t going...
White elephant with winglets
I've flown most modern jumbos in my life but it was just a couple of years ago that I made my one,and only,flight on an A340.
Despite that flight being on a major airline it was almost as bad as my Egypt Air flight on a 707 about 30 years ago.
The most comfortable ride was out of Mpls on Northwest 727. That airplane was comfortable and fast.
Having flown in the A380...It is a wonderful airplane. Quiet, smooth, comfortable. Really a marvelous airplane but a big SOB that requires the airport install specialized jetways.
What the future needs is speed,
I remember POP-SCI predicting airliners of 1000+ passengers in ‘the future’...............
But what happened was Boeing's unexpected success with the 777-300ER and the strong sales of the 787-8 and 787-9, which has proven that passengers want point-to-point long-range flights, not hub-to-hub long-range flights. Indeed, the 787-9 made it possible for several Chinese airlines to fly from multiple cities in China directly to western Europe and the USA at reasonable cost.
Nope. 5/7/5 rule not adhered to.
I’ve flown the 380 many times (BA, EY and QR)all in Biz class.
BA from LHR to HKG
EY from LHR to AUH and back
QR from DOH to LHR
QR was the nicest flight I have ever taken, flight, staff, food, comfort, AV.
I have also flown 787 from IAD-AUH-IAD, very nice and quiet plane.
Flew Cathay’s A350 from HKG to BKK. Super quiet ride, and top-notch Cathay food and service.
Couldn’t they save a lot of fuel by lowering the landing gear 30 seconds later than they currently do? Seems they deploy the gear really early in the landing sequence.
Or would it make no difference when they are already configured for landing?
If they fly just to Mecca during Hajj, then they could stack them in like cord wood............
I sure would be a shame if a muslim flying an A380 packed with Hadjis were to crash it right into the middle of that crowd. Especially if it were loaded with fuel at the time.
"Smok! Smok!"
My only 380 experiences have been on EK between JFK <=>DXB <=> HKG.
There are several airlines that are operating both the 787 and the 350 out of Boston so I suspect that I'll be flying them eventually.Lufthansa is also flying the new 747 out of Boston and I must admit I'm curious about it as well.
As for Cathay Pacific...we found on our only flight with them that their service was excellent...even in coach...even on a 15:55 flight (16 hours and 8 time zones!).
> “They could improve fuel efficiency by a significant 4 percent and—along with other improvements—cut operating expenses by 13 percent.”
If it could do that, they should have done it years ago.
I think only the airlines ever liked hub and spoke. So being able to breakup that model is a good move. And of course Boeing was careful to make sure their new planes fit in the old infrastructure.
It’s funny but when A380 development was started many right here on FR were criticizing Boeing for letting somebody else take the lead. I and a few others thought it was a good move as the cutting edge isn’t always good. And here we are now, Boeing’s decision was right.
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