A380 Scrapped

[mak]

A Qantas Airbus A380 Is Now Being Scrapped In Victorville.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/a ... li=BBnbfcL

[deankham]

I really don't understand where it went wrong for the A380. Too expensive to run?

In my opinion its the best plane out there. Qatar Airways have started suing theirs again due to legal issues with Boing and not using some of their new fleet.
Had some real ------ flights using some old planes until recently. Was nice to be back on the A380.

[rick]

yes. loved the A380. used Emirates and always less noisy, smoother flight and good food and drink (they stock Cointreau )

[AlexO]

I really don't understand where it went wrong for the A380. Too expensive to run?

In my opinion its the best plane out there. Qatar Airways have started suing theirs again due to legal issues with Boing and not using some of their new fleet.
Had some real ------ flights using some old planes until recently. Was nice to be back on the A380.

Exactly mate, far more fuel efficient engines on smaller planes undercut the costs per passenger on the same journey on a A380 by a large margin.
Better passenger experience on a A380, but airlines were cutting every cost they had to make a (more) profit.

[colt1911]

The plane of choice now is the A350. Super fuel efficient and can fly up to 20 hours with out refueling. Some good examples are nonstop from Singapore to London, Singapore to New York, nice plane. I flew from Hong Kong to Bangkok Business Class. Loved it. Lots of orders for the A350.

[Bandung_Dero]

Not surprised, but rather than scrapping these relatively new aircraft they could have been stripped and converted to service the burgeoning freight industry.
The Ukranian Antonoffs are way past their use by date.

[tamada]

Not surprised, but rather than scrapping these relatively new aircraft they could have been stripped and converted to service the burgeoning freight industry.
The Ukranian Antonoffs are way past their use by date.

Ya think?

[pepesgrill]

why don't they use those for freight transport? that seems like a perfect solution. unless they're
just too big? emirates built their business on them

[glalt]

It's not that simple of an answer. Unfortunately many airports have not been willing to invest the money making changes that will accommodate that huge plane.

[Udon Map]

I really don't understand where it went wrong for the A380. Too expensive to run?

The theory of the super jumbo is for hub-to-hub transport of large numbers of passengers. From the hubs, smaller planes would run feeder flights to and from other cities in the area. The problem was that that was a misread of the market. Passengers tend to prefer more frequent point-to-point service.

Interesting article on how Boeing more or less tricked Airbus into developing the 380 when Boeing knew that it would never be a commercial success. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan ... 6ed9816c2a

[tamada]

It's not that simple of an answer. Unfortunately many airports have not been willing to invest the money making changes that will accommodate that huge plane.

In addition to the flight frequency that Udon Map mentions, I agree that the aircraft size probably was a factor as well. When 747's started flying, they were seen as the high-capacity, long-distance, non-stop, hub-to-hub aircraft needed for the booming intercontinental travel market.

I recall the Japanese were a significant adapter of modified, higher-capacity 747-100SR's* on their own domestic routes where any airport infrastructure upgrades to enable multiple entry/egress were reasonably low cost and adaptable for regular 747's, 777's and other wide-bodies. Using 747's for 80 minute domestic shuttles probably wasn't thought about when they first entered service. The infrastructure needed for the A380 was significantly larger and probably only truly cost effective on that one, single type of aircraft? Viable for the all A380 fleet at Emirates but an expensive boondoggle for the likes of Thai or Malaysian with only half a dozen of them each.

Here's a good read on who has them and their status as of a couple of months ago.

https://simpleflying.com/airbus-a380-fate-by-airline/

* JAL123 that crashed on a flight from Tokyo to Osaka in 1985 was carrying over 509 pax and was probably configured for 550.

[Udon Map]

JAL123 that crashed on a flight from Tokyo to Osaka in 1985 was carrying over 509 pax and was probably configured for 550.

The flight was carrying 524 people, -- 509 passengers (of whom 4 survived), and 15 crew who all died.

I recall the Japanese were a significant adapter of modified, higher-capacity 747-100SR's* . . . .

JAL was the launch customer for the 747-100SR.

[sometimewoodworker]

why don't they use those for freight transport? that seems like a perfect solution. unless they're
just too big? emirates built their business on them

Converting to a pure freight aircraft is not a simple job, there has to be a very large door cut in a standard jumbo & the design for those has already been done. For the A380 there would need to be a complete redesign of the conversion with a limited number of available aircraft to spread the cost across. The conversion usually takes about 8 months per plane (with an established design) with few companies doing them.

So with all of that, by the time the converted A380s became available the markets for them may have disappeared.

During the pandemic non specialised aircraft were flying cargo at higher cost than the cargo planes because most cargo went in the passenger flights and they stopped so the higher costs of non cargo specialist planes was the only option.

As to the failure of the A380 to gain commercial success, it is largely due to the big hub model dropping out of use for many airlines, the Arab airlines being an exception

[sometimewoodworker]

I really don't understand where it went wrong for the A380. Too expensive to run?

The theory of the super jumbo is for hub-to-hub transport of large numbers of passengers. From the hubs, smaller planes would run feeder flights to and from other cities in the area. The problem was that that was a misread of the market. Passengers tend to prefer more frequent point-to-point service.

It was not so much a misreading of the market, more that later smaller aircraft could do the point to point flights and that the passengers were enough to fill them so became viable to drop the big hubs.

[Barney]

It would be a shame to see the 380 with its impressive drooping wings cease to fly.
Was in Dubai recently and as we taxed in there were were no less than 9 Emirates lined up at the gates, the 777 looked a poor cousin at the end of the line.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Whistler]

A shame to see it go, I flew Sydney to Miami in an A380, the quietest and smoothest long-haul flight I ever experienced

[Potamoi]

I enjoyed a few A380 flights upstairs on Emirates to and from West coast of the US. The 380 lounge in Dubai is nice enough but fair warning if you connect to a non-380 flight, you change terminals in DXB. That non-380 biz lounge has shower rooms with no toilets making it clumsy if you don't know that before booking them. Emirates are pretty good with those 380's and it is nice to sit at the bar in the back for part of a long flight.

My current favourite however is Polaris Class on a 787 Dreamliner. United must have listened to the customer comments as the service, layout, amenities and food really surprised me. It's as if all of the United battleaxes were told this is a young woman's job to be a flight attendant on these aircraft. 787's are really comfy and quiet with the humidified air making long flights easy similar to the A380.

It is sad to see the 380 retire so early as it is a nice overall experience. An airline or manufacturer losing money is bad for all of us in the end. Just look at current ticket prices.

[sometimewoodworker]

My current favourite however is Polaris Class on a 787 Dreamliner. United must have listened to the customer comments as the service, layout, amenities and food really surprised me. It's as if all of the United battleaxes were told this is a young woman's job to be a flight attendant on these aircraft. 787's are really comfy and quiet with the humidified air making long flights easy similar to the A380.

I would guess that you haven’t had the opportunity to experience the Qatar Q-suite or top deck front on the A380, I think that if you had your opinion could well be different, though of course they may not fly the route you need.

[Potamoi]

I would guess that you haven’t had the opportunity to experience the Qatar Q-suite or top deck front on the A380, I think that if you had your opinion could well be different, though of course they may not fly the route you need.

Right you are Sometimewoodworker.

My neighbor flies those Q-Suites often and recommends them highly although I think his are generally a 777's on most of his routes. He does occasionally get the odd A380 on the routes he flies which are apparently quite nice. April this year Qatar began the 380's to BKK from what I read.

Qatar being a OneWorld member make it all the more a compelling option over Emirates as well. One day we hope to try them out when traveling with my wife especially since some of the middle Q-Suites convert to a double suite nicely from what I see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yhZDsctiZg

[sometimewoodworker]

I would guess that you haven’t had the opportunity to experience the Qatar Q-suite or top deck front on the A380, I think that if you had your opinion could well be different, though of course they may not fly the route you need.

Right you are Sometimewoodworker.

My neighbor flies those Q-Suites often and recommends them highly although I think his are generally a 777's on most of his routes. He does occasionally get the odd A380 on the routes he flies which are apparently quite nice. April this year Qatar began the 380's to BKK from what I read.

Qatar being a OneWorld member make it all the more a compelling option over Emirates as well. One day we hope to try them out when traveling with my wife especially since some of the middle Q-Suites convert to a double suite nicely from what I see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yhZDsctiZg

The odd numbered Center pair of seats is rear facing and close together, the even pair are front facing and not as close but also have a divider that can be lowered. So you can have a group of 2 or 4 depending on the dividers you drop.

At the moment the BKK - DOH route is mostly A380s with some Q-suite flights. The Qatar A380 seat’s are not as private as the Q-suites but almost better if you choose the window seat. The Qatar A380 has the best and biggest lounge of any apart from private jets. Also the Al Mourjan lounge just got placed as number one worldwide and from my experience it’s easy to see why.