Airbus crisis is a French farce

TheBusinessWeek.co.uk ^ | Jun 21 2006 | John Heffernan

[xarmydog]

Never thought about that.But,that scenario is based on the premise of it landing on the ground in one piece!

[ccmay]

Talk about cramming, in 1991 a El Al Boeing 747 airlifted a record-breaking 1087 passengers.

At least they were flying out of Ethiopia instead of Des Moines. I bet the average weight of the passengers was about 90 lbs.

-ccm

[Zhangliqun]

I'm a fan of giant planes, the bigger the better. Would love to see a 2,000 passenger airliner just for the helluvit.

That said, according to a WSJ article I read yesterday, Airbus's main problem is not the physical soundness or reliability of the 380 but the fact that nobody wants it. There's just not much of a market for big planes right now and those that do buy them want the 747.

This probably has a LOT to do with why Boeing is going smaller lately, like with the 787 and even the 777, which is big, but still smaller than the 747.

[Paleo Conservative]

I'm a fan of giant planes, the bigger the better. Would love to see a 2,000 passenger airliner just for the helluvit.

But would you really want to be a passenger on one? Do you really want to be stuck in the baggage claim area for 90 minutes after a flight trying to sort through all the luggage from 2,000 people. Don't be surprised if business and first class have a different baggage claim area for the same flight.

[Freeport]

No big problem. For any real emergency their will only be a big grease stain on the ground anyway....

Instead of taking a day to clean the place up, it'll be a week of body bags instead.

[Paleo Conservative]

This probably has a LOT to do with why Boeing is going smaller lately, like with the 787 and even the 777, which is big, but still smaller than the 747.

The various versions of the 777-200 are a little bit larger than an MD-11. The 777-300 variants have the same seating capacity as the 747-100 and 747-200.

[Sicon]

Am I the only one who noticed the redundancy in the headline?

French Farce

[Zhangliqun]

The various versions of the 777-200 are a little bit larger than an MD-11. The 777-300 variants have the same seating capacity as the 747-100 and 747-200.

It's still just a bit smaller physically than the 747, which is a plus for fuel consumption.

[DuncanWaring]

Remember the two 747s that collided at Tenerife (Canary Islands)?

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Did you hear that Boeing ( with Airlines input ) is being asked to stretch the new 747-8I even farther ?
In a article in the June 20 th edition of Flight International, they are saying that some airlines in Asia ( probability Japan ) wants Boeing to stretch the new 747-8I from a 11.7 foot stretch to possibly a 15 foot stretch.
Here is a form on Airlines.net about it.

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/2833239/

[Zhangliqun]

Remember the two 747s that collided at Tenerife (Canary Islands)?

I remember it well -- KLM Airlines from either Denmark or Holland, right?

[DuncanWaring]

KLM is Dutch.

Here is an accident summary.

[colorado tanker]

People want to fly point to point, which it turns out is more profitable than hubs. Giant hubs, which this plane is designed to serve, are becoming outdated.

[Zhangliqun]

KLM is Dutch.

As is Holland from what I hear...

[Zhangliqun]

You know, I'm gonna have to take back what I said about the 777 being smaller than the 747. On further research, depending on the variant, it's actually bigger.

[DuncanWaring]

Yes. But not Danish. ;-)

[Paleo Conservative]

You know, I'm gonna have to take back what I said about the 777 being smaller than the 747. On further research, depending on the variant, it's actually bigger.

That's why the 777-300's have been marketed as 747-100 and 747-200 replacements. They have room for the same number of seats but have only two engines and consume 30% less fuel to fly the same distances at the same speeds.

[shield]

bttt

[Zhangliqun]

But at the end of the day, what is really, functionally wrong with the A380? Most of what I've been hearing in the negative is

a) None of the airlines really wants it, in part because;

b) The +/-800 passenger version would take up too much room at the gate and thereby significantly limit the number of airports that can accept it.

c) Airlines are moving toward de-hubbing a bit, or something like that, meaning they need more smaller planes to service more local markets.

Haven't really heard anything about its sheer physical performance/reliability. Is it a badly made plane or is it just a case of it being too big?