[ads11]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

To best of my knowledge these are the domestic legs of a longer international flight with the first and last sector within India so that passengers at a smaller station can benefit from a direct (though not non-stop) international route. These flights therefore try and attract domestic only passengers to augment revenues a bit. Some times these first and last legs are at odd hours. I do not know about the cabin service as I've never flown on these Air India flights. A small correction - I was from the industry. Now I am a grey eagle.

For what it's worth, when I used to take the AI flight from Heathrow to Calcutta, more often than not I would end up getting a Dreamliner for the short domestic leg too. This was on the CCU-DEL-LHR leg. From what I recall, the plane for the LHR-DEL leg would then go on to make a final stop at Amritsar. As far as service goes I've always found the AI Dreamliners to be a pleasant experience. The cabin is light and airy, the svelte overhead bins help give the impression of lots of headroom and between the large windows and the multicolour accent lights it's quite nice to be in. I can't speak to it being the quietest cabin, though I know that it's definitely a damn sight quieter than the rumbly big twin 777s I mostly tend to get on long haul jaunts.

I had no idea they ever used a Jumbo within India. I did get lucky in finally getting to board a Jumbo last year on a Vegas Manchester flight on Virgin. In my excitement though I didn't think much of how decidedly old and decrepit the interiors were. Also it was mega noisy. But little matter, finally got that ride ticked off.

I've flown Jet's big A330 on a MAN-BOM route once IIRC. I'm not a fan of Jet. The cabins are dated and the in flight entertainment consoles on my last 3 flights with them have been dire, dated and defunct. I think given the choice I'll happily go with Air India instead, it might not have the most whizz bang cabins but they're alright, having things I consider necessary, like a functioning USB port.

Coming back to the A380. Another interesting factor that gets brought up wrt it's demise is the fact that there are many 2nd hand ones entering the market now through charter companies. I got to fly on one of those charter A380s once! (can't seem to remember where from - and who with originally - but I checked the tail number and it was this very one)
https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/hi-f...erator-photos/

[ant_vas]

I wonder why airline companies in India don't consider smaller firms like Embraer and Bombardier.

Saw 2 EMB-145 planes of Star air parked at Bangalore airport on sunday morning. They currently offer flights from Bangalore to Hubli, Belgaum and Tirupati. Soon launching flights to Ahmadabad and Delhi (Hindon) as well.

Spicejet uses Bombardier planes as well

So the trend of using the Embraer or Bombardier has already started especially to locations which are now getting connected under the UDAN scheme.

The below link has the fleet used by various airlines in India: http://www.knowindia.net/aviation7.html

[deetjohn]

I recently flew economy on the big bird to San Francisco. This was the first time for me on the A380 and I was really looking forward to it, but the whole experience was slightly underwhelming to be very honest.

Some pointers from a layman perspective given below - both good and bad that I felt.

1) The flight was almost full and there was a long queue for both getting in and out. Queues get extremely long especially at US emigration. This will be a problem for only economy eventhough there are many gates and it is bad.

2) The NVH is amazing even at full pelt. Brilliant plane to sleep. But the thigh support or leg room for economy is just like any other smaller plane. They have simply packed it with too many seats.

3) The full weight of the aircraft is felt during take off. I felt the plane was barely able to get off ground and climb. Was a bit hairy. There is a sense of stall or floating in mid air than the normal rush you get. It masks the speed quite well. Maybe I am used to and relish the rollercoaster take offs of the lesser aircrafts.

4) Love the real time cameras and the big screen for entertainment. And movies feel better without the constant whine of 4 jet engines.

As you can see, this pic was taken a bit after take off. Still haven't reached the cruising speed or altitude. But it was like watching the onboard cam on a F1 car. Loved it.


5) The plane flew right over the planet - over the Artic and that was such a rush. The flight path was sort of an inverted U. I have never flown that route. Not sure if this is the peculiarity of the A380.




So, I guess the A380 it is, if you fly first class or business. For flying economy, I wouldn't miss the big bird. I wish they had brought in a bit more differentiation for the economy class. Taking advantage of its sheer size. Like Economy plus or something with more room.

Nevertheless, it looks very elegant at the airport - and one will feel the awe of the engineering marvel the big bird is.

[ads11]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

I recently flew ..

Just going to add a few of my points -
1- this has long been a bug bear of mine. I first became aware when flying from Heathrow once and noticing that the boarding queue stretched well into the concessions area! So yes, it means boarding takes even longer but more worryingly it means trying to clear immigration somewhere shortstaffed like Heathrow is adding insult to injury. I've often wondered why management don't add more man power when they know they have high volume flights landing. So yes, this is an infrastructure consideration one needs to keep in mind for a big one like the A380 (similarly this would apply to a big twin like the 777 for example).

2- I wonder if as a consequence of it's massive size the A380 sort of damps any natural vibration and noises that happen during a flight. It certainly is much more of a cosseted experience on board NVH wise, agreed.

3&4- once landing in Manchester, after having endured being stuck in Chennai airport during the floods, of course we landed in the middle of a storm. Watching on the video feed the entire jet being blown clean off kilter right on approach was a serious code brown situation for my friends and I especially due to recent stress. In that instance having the camera view just added to our purgatory and our burning desire to be as far away from an Emirates plane as possible. But I digress, the view from the top of the tail is neat.

5- that flight path over the Arctic is actually pretty common. It ends up being much shorter. I think our surprise stems from the fact we are so used to traditional 2D mercator projection maps that we forget we live on an oblate spheroid. Pretty sure a lot of the current mega duration direct flights go over the Arctic circle. (This video might help) -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdNDYBt9e_U

[Foxbat]

Maybe a 2nd life for the A380 as a freighter doesn't seem so far fetched after all?

Lufthansa Technik Is Working On The World’s First ‘Cargo’ A380

https://simpleflying.com/lufthansa-technik-cargo-a380/



Although the conversion is temporary.

MASKargo A380 in cargo-only flight ‘first’

https://www.aircargonews.net/airline...-flight-first/

[ads11]

I would've thought that this is only a stop gap measure. The fact is, I'm sure I saw Simple Flying in an earlier video about the plummeting prices of A380s on the used market basically say that even if the big quad engined jet were to be converted to a freighter, via maybe a side loading door, the economics are just too poor. Big twins are just vastly more economical to operate even as cargo jets just the same as they are for passenger transport. I know to this one might bring up the fact that the 747 still soldiers on in cargo form. To which I'd point out that in its favour is the fact that the front can swing open, allowing loading of outsized or otherwise uniquely proportioned cargo that wouldn't normally fit through the side mounted loading door. And even then the workhorses of say UPS or FedEx's fleets have a majority of twin engines (there are still a smattering of trijets in there for you aficionados).

Sadly the A380 is pretty much going to meet a quiet end. Especially what with the impending doom the industry is facing, I wonder if even on busy trunk routes there'll start to be questions of the value picture of the big double deckers

[V.Narayan]

I for one would love to see the A380 getting converted to cargo configuration and continue to fly for another 20+ years. Cargo by air is a growing industry and should continue to grow once the CV19 matters settle down over the next year or two.

The B747-400 has a usuable internal volume of 710 cubic metres and a payload of 112 tonnes carried over 2 decks. The A380 on the other hand has an internal volume of 1134 cubic metres and a payload 150 tonnes spread over 3 decks. Air cargo is often about volume and not weight as products transported by air are usually - light, those that require protective packaging, expensive, need to get there in hours not weeks. Some argue that the A380F will max out on weight before volume others argue it will be ideal for several cargoes where the B747F and B777F max out on volume first. Given the lower price point at which the A380s will now be available a conversion could well be worth it.

For clarification a passenger or 'B'version of a 747 cannot be rebuilt to fit the lifting nose. That comes only factory fitted.

It would be a real pity if these behemoths of the skies were to go quietly to their graves.

[ads11]

Another point I suppose was the much higher weight of the A380. I thought that hindered the economics of it as a freighter too.

I suppose someone is going to have a punt at it if the prices really do plummet but I doubt it. But even then it'll almost be like buying an old exotic on the cheap. It might be cheap to buy but maintaining it will be back breaking. AFAIK Emirates are scavenging their retired or mothballed A380s for maintenance and spare parts.

Oh I didn't mean the Jumbo could be converted, more that the production line is still viable because they can't churn out cargo versions. Which Airbus long ago decided wasn't worth it for them.

I mean we won't get any more new builds beyond whatever is in the order books.

[vharihar]

Nice video about the massive wake turbulence of an A380, and a real upset it caused:

https://youtu.be/O8a_lvC33Do

[Vid6639]

The A380 with new social distancing measures may just be the solution. Running smaller crafts with less people vs an A380 with lesser seats, I'm sure the A380 makes more sense economically.

Yes fares will be higher but you don't have to run as many flights.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by vharihar

Nice video about the massive wake turbulence of an A380, and a real upset it caused

While flying BLR to BKK on a 737 in 2019, we faced sudden violent turbulence which the pilot (later) explained was due to a A380 passing over us from the other side. This was on a fully loaded 737-800, and I can only imagine the terror on that business jet.

Luckily, our meal service was long over and folks were strapped in and napping, else major mayhem would have happened.

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

The A380 with new social distancing measures may just be the solution. Running smaller crafts with less people vs an A380 with lesser seats, I'm sure the A380 makes more sense economically.

Yes fares will be higher but you don't have to run as many flights.

The biggest challenge for Airlines operating an A380 was the cost associated to it as you can make a profit only if the flight is filled up to capacity, which is a real challenge even during the good times when the airline industry was in full swing.

The maintenance cost is another aspect of this Jumbo which has had reliability issues in the past.

Only airline to turn a profit on A380 was Emirates and there were a few factors associated with it despite the fact that the best occupancy they could manage on an average was 70%. The factors which helped make a profit on the A380 operations are as below:

A) Fleet size - With a fleet consisting of 115 A380, it was one of the largest fleet among all Airlines and almost 50% of all A380 in service. A single A380 would roughly cost around USD 446 million before discounts.This meant they could negotiate a good deal and save a lot of money by placing bulk orders.

B) Spare parts - With such a huge fleet size you need to invest heavily in parts. And again they were able to negotiate a good deal because of the size of the order they could place for their fleet. Just imagine the last going rate for a Rolls Royce - Trent 900 engine was USD 25 million and this aircraft needs four of them. A good deal would save you a few millions on the engine alone.

C) Maintenance - With such a huge fleet in made sense to invest in an in house maintenance team. This is much more efficient and cost affective than outsourcing it.

D) Crew Training - Cost savings again because they could train a larger and dedicated crew for operating such a huge fleet.

However, in the current times all airlines are running to minimise cost and hence are looking at new smaller and more fuel efficient aeroplanes as fuel is a major contributor to the running cost.

Emirates has fired almost 792 pilots operating its A380 fleet as it is putting 40 A380 out of service from its current fleet. :(

[libranof1987]

The last A380 is almost complete.

A magnificent beast made of four million parts from 30 different countries, the Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner, and its era is almost at an end.

Initial assembly has recently been completed on the last ever superjumbo, after it was announced in 2019 that the European airplane manufacturers were discontinuing the plane.

--

Initial assembly of the final double-decker jet, serial number 272, has been completed, with manufacturing station 40 now out of work.

It's now off to station 30, where, Airbus media relations manager Anne Galabert tells CNN Travel, the engines will be installed and tests carried out on electrical and hydraulic systems, on-board computers, landing gear and moving parts.

"The final tests are performed outside," she says -- with the checks including fuel gauge calibration, cabin pressurization, radios, radar, navigation systems and fuel tank sealing -- and "the aircraft is then prepared for flight."
After engine tests are performed, the aircraft will make its first test flight to Hamburg, Germany, where the cabin will be installed, fitted out and the plane painted in the customer's livery: Emirates Airlines.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...led/index.html

[myavu]

Two Singapore Airlines A380s towed along public road to be scrapped at Changi Exhibition Centre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUbG03BzIog

At 11pm sharp, a roughly 2km-stretch of the road was blocked off. It had earlier been stripped of its lamp posts and fitted with low floodlights on either side. Everything was now ready for the operation to commence.

In an operation lasting a few hours, two Singapore Airlines' (SIA) Airbus A380s were towed on their final trip to Changi Exhibition Centre, where they will be taken apart. This is the first time that SIA is scrapping its superjumbos locally.

The planes, registration numbers 9V-SKH and 9V-SKG, are among seven A380s that SIA had announced in November last year it would retire, amid a first half net loss of S$3.5 billion as passenger numbers fell by almost 99 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sing...changi-2215261

[Amrik Singh]

Emirates and British Airways have announced their plans to re-introduce A-380 on some of their routes. Qatar is also considering the same.
Airlines are banking on air travel to pick up and having suffered losses due to Covid, are reluctant to invest in newer Aircraft ditching available ones.