A380 airport impact

[wings421]

Anyone care to comment or guess what impact the A380 is going to have on North American airports? From what I understand there are very few airports that are currently capable of handling the aircraft. Looks like Airbus has an online publication just about airport impact (201 pages, I didn't care to read that much). In addition to the current orders, who else do you see purchasing these aircraft? Obviously there will only be a dozen or two airports in the US that will need to handle the airplane. Just curious what people think. Good idea Airbus or is it just too big for the present day (and near future). I think that they have close to their break even point in orders right now.

 

[FN FAL]

This is just a rumor, but I heard they only really need two airports for that plane. One in Europe and one in the US. The plane was built primarily as a cost effective way for European pilots to commute to their US airline jobs here in the states. But I could be wrong on that.

 

[typhoonpilot]

The plane was built primarily as a cost effective way for European pilots to commute to their US airline jobs here in the states.

From what I understand there are very few airports that are currently capable of handling the aircraft. Looks like Airbus has an online publication just about airport impact (201 pages, I didn't care to read that much).

Nor do I, besides terminal improvements an airport would need an RFF category of 10 for the A-380. This is an all new category for this size aircraft. Dubai is the first to earn that level. ( For all that don't know, RFF stands for Rescue and Fire Fighting ).

In addition to the current orders, who else do you see purchasing these aircraft?

The Asian carriers that haven't ordered it will in time. They are just waiting to see that it is viable, but when it starts flying they will get it because they always buy the biggest and newest. It could also go to the big freight companies that haven't ordered it yet as well. I doubt a U.S. pax carrier will order it as they are so he!! bent on flying a million fifty seaters around the country that they can't be bothered to look at the revenue potential. They may be right as the U.S. market is more interested in high frequency with small airplanes than the Asian and European markets.

Good idea Airbus or is it just too big for the present day (and near future).

The world's population is forecast to increase by another 50 percent before leveling off around 9 billion. More and more people from China and India have the means to travel. It may be a little early but it will fill a need in time. Many people expressed similar questions about the 747 when it first came out and look how well it has done.

Typhoonpilot

 

[FN FAL]

The world's population is forecast to increase by another 50 percent before leveling off around 9 billion

Boy, is that going to be some party! What do you suppose is going to cause the plateau?

 

[F16TJ]

One of my ERAU Masters classes a few (pre-9/11) years ago was a critical evaluation of the A380. Each member of the class got a different use for the aircraft to evaluate. I got the Euro "domestic" option.

The prof had an "in" with an Airbus exec and got us some good Airbus info for us to use in the project. One thing that is rarely advertised is the "economy" version of this pig will seat 1000 pax! Just about everything you see now is that it will seat 550 pax. Airbus has plans.

As was stated above, there aren't alot of airports in the US that will be able to support this thing without alot of improvement/expansion.

The class concluded that the international market will support it, since you can haul a bunch of pax on each flight. Cargo carriers are salivating at getting it, especially for Asia. Domestic/short haul use will probably not be a player since loading/unloading times would be so great that other means of travel will probably be faster.

One other thing the class came up with was the liaibility issue. God forbid you lose one of these things with 1000 pax onboard.

Our prof combined all our papers together and sent it to his Airbus contact. Have no idea what happened after that. It was fun looking at it back then.

Out...