New high capacity airplanes

Quote: TheCesspit

I wonder if there is some rule about being seated for landing?

I don't know if it's a rule, but for landing the cabin crew all must be seated facing aft and with a seat belt on. You see this easily on smaller planes like the A-320 and B-737.

I like the cubicles stacked three high in "The Fifth Element" where the stewardesses push a button and the passengers all go to sleep.

Like Japanese pod hotels...

Quote: Pacomartin

I like the cubicles stacked three high in "The Fifth Element" where the stewardesses push a button and the passengers all go to sleep.

One of many great moments in that movie.

Sales of the A380 are not good, and US airlines have sworn never to buy the plane. But as the need to sell them increase, the price keeps dropping. Eight routes with the A380 terminate at LAX, and five routes terminate at JFK.

No A380's fly to Latin America, and the Frankfurt to Johannesburg flight is the only one to Africa. Emirates and Singapore Air represent half the traffic in this airframe.

The CEO of Airbus is confident that he can eventually bring Delta around to purchasing the jet. Currently only one route from Seoul to Atlanta is using the A380 (by Korean Air).

Airline		Airframes	Seats July 2014	Average seats/plane	Flights (month)	Traffic	Routes
Emirates Airline	(EK)	50	1,326,120	489	2,711.90	43.2%	25
Singapore Airlines	(SQ)	19	413,554	471	878.03	13.5%	11
Lufthansa	(LH)	12	259,828	527	493.03	8.5%	8
Air France	(AF)	10	208,880	516	404.81	6.8%	7
Qantas	(QF)	12	200,376	484	414.00	6.5%	5
Korean Air	(KE)	10	134,310	407	330.00	4.4%	4
China Southern	(CZ)	5	125,488	506	248.00	4.1%	3
Thai Airways International	(TG)	6	124,722	507	246.00	4.1%	4
British Airways	(BA)	6	111,622	469	238.00	3.6%	3
Malaysia Airlines	(MH)	6	91,884	494	186.00	3.0%	2
Asiana Airlines	(OZ)	2	71,280	495	144.00	2.3%	4
11 Airlines		138	3,068,064				76

Most of the routes are long range intercontinental, but some airlines get more seats out of fewer airframes. China southern is the only one to use the A380 on heavily traveled domestic routes 1170-1200 miles. Asiana flies short routes from Korea to Japan. Air France has more flights to the East Coast USA than Lufthansa.

Do you think a US airlines will eventually buy the jet?

Paco,

Not sure if you're asking me particularly, but I'll SWAG an answer. I think it's right about even money whether they will or not, depending on several variables.

Biggest is economic; if the B787 Dreamcruiser is comparable value, US airlines will always buy Boeing over Airbus, if they're in the market for a supersized aircraft. With Airbus underwritten by the French and British governments, it's hard to say what the economics will be; I suspect the Dreamcruiser will be appreciably more.

Air carriers are not presently flying a lot of super-capacity airplanes, and seats are in the 80% range or so across the industry. The business demand has changed dramatically over the last 13 years, post-911. Business commercial travel learned to find alternatives, mostly virtual, to in-person sales, meetings, and conferences, beginning with the curtailment of travel then, and the continuing loss of time and efficiency when travelling. Business travel costs have also skyrocketed in that same time period due to fuel costs, airline consolidation leading to loss of route competition, and loss of federal subsidies protecting small to medium market access to aviation. All of this would tend to indicate that aviation in the US has peaked and stabilized without requiring the investment in super-capacity widebodies. Against that, labor costs have declined overall with legacy airlines divesting of their pension obligations and a general lowering of wages with B-scale and C-scale pay expectations, and the move from large carrier jets to medium-sized subsidiary jet connections spoking out from regional hubs. (My browser is acting up so I'm going to try to post this before I lose it; more later)

Do any of the BIG planes have amenities like a lounge any more?

What I'd really like is a sealed off area meant for sleeping. Oh, it won't ever be practical, but it would be nice. It's amazing how noisy people can be on an airplane. Yet when I have to catch a flight at 6 am, I would enjoy a 45-60 minute nap.

Once, the last time I flew Mexicana to Vegas, I managed to sleep most of the time between the climb out and the descent. I missed breakfast on board, but for once I touched down feeling rested.

Quote: beachbumbabs

The business demand has changed dramatically over the last 13 years, post-911. Business commercial travel learned to find alternatives, mostly virtual, to in-person sales, meetings, and conferences, beginning with the curtailment of travel then, and the continuing loss of time and efficiency when travelling.

About 9 months before 9-11 Airbus felt that it had a critical mass of orders to begin proceed with development of the A380

12 Qantas
10(options 15) Singapore Airlines
10 Air France SA
6 Virgin
5 Dubai's Emirates Airline
5 International Lease Finance Corp., a unit of American International Group

Now 14 years later Air France has not accepted more than it's original 10. Virgin Airlines keeps threatening to cancel. Without Emirates making it their signature plane, the program would be a complete disaster. It's a pretty remarkable fleet that Emirates has, with all widebody aircraft.

Airline	code	A380's
Emirates Airline	(EK)	50
Singapore Airlines	(SQ)	19
Lufthansa	(LH)	12
Qantas	(QF)	12
Air France	(AF)	10
Korean Air	(KE)	10
Thai Airways International	(TG)	6
British Airways	(BA)	6
Malaysia Airlines	(MH)	6
China Southern	(CZ)	5
Asiana Airlines	(OZ)	2
11 Airlines		138

Quote: Nareed

Do any of the BIG planes have amenities like a lounge any more?

Emirates has a bar in business class.


But I think the old days are gone forever.

Quote: Nareed

What I'd really like is a sealed off area meant for sleeping. Oh, it won't ever be practical, but it would be nice. It's amazing how noisy people can be on an airplane. Yet when I have to catch a flight at 6 am, I would enjoy a 45-60 minute nap.

The worst thing is getting the middle seat in a section 5 seats across for a 10 hour flight. The old DC-10 had a 2-5-2 seating across. I flew on one from Chicago to Honolulu that way. I wanted to go to a restroom for about 3 hours, and I was surrounded by snoring bodies.

Quote: Pacomartin

Emirates has a bar in business class.

Cool!

Quote:

But I think the old days are gone forever.

Yes. But it's nice at laast one airline doens't have the goal to pack as many people as posible in the plane.

Quote:

The worst thing is getting the middle seat in a section 5 seats across for a 10 hour flight. The old DC-10 had a 2-5-2 seating across. I flew on one from Chicago to Honolulu that way. I wanted to go to a restroom for about 3 hours, and I was surrounded by snoring bodies.

One reason I love today's smallest jets is they have a 2-2 seating configuration. I can't stand being in the middle seat even when I'm next to people I know. I can take it for a short flight. I admire anyone stuck in a middle seat who doesn't resort to violence to clear up some space.

On a flight JFK-MEX I gave up my window seat to a woman so she could seat next to her friend. She didn't even thank me. I wound up between a woman scared to death of flying on my left, and a drunk on my right (the man sipped his way through 5+ hours of flight).