Airbus 380

Emirates has upped their offer again to 200 neoA380's as a further inducement to the manufacturer to begin the program. No word if there is a stick along with this carrot (i.e. we will cancel the last order we made for final fifty of the current version).

Malaysia leased two A380's to Turkish Airlines for a test run. Slight possibility of a new customer for Airbus.

Emirates if now flying to all but 8 airports that have the facilities to service the A380. For this airlines to have hundreds of A380's, they have to expand to new markets, because it is unlikely they can fly double and triple A380's to their current markets.

It seems funny that an airline would go to this extent for a manufacturer. It is hard to believe that this jet is so insanely profitable, yet almost no airline will touch it.

Miles from Dubai
x (DXB) 0 Dubai
x (DOH) 238 Doha Qatar Airways
1 (KWI) 530 Kuwait
2 (JED) 1,060 Jeddah
3 (BOM) 1,200 Mumbai
4 (FCO) 2,700 Rome
5 (MUC) 2,830 Munich
6 (MXP) 2,928 Milan
7 (ZRH) 2,960 Zurich
8 (FRA) 3,010 Frankfurt
9 (BKK) 3,030 Bangkok
10 (MRU) 3,160 Mauritius
11 (AMS) 3,210 Amsterdam
12 (BCN) 3,210 Barcelona
13 (CDG) 3,250 Paris
14 (LGW) 3,400 London
15 (KUL) 3,420 Kuala Lumpur
16 (LHR) 3,423 London
17 (MAN) 3,510 Manchester
18 (PEK) 3,610 Beijing
19 (SIN) 3,630 Singapore
20 (HKG) 3,690 Hong Kong
21 (PVG) 3,980 Shanghai
22 (ICN) 4,200 Seoul
23 (JFK) 6,830 New York
24 (YYZ) 6,880 Toronto
25 (MEL) 7,230 Melbourne
26 (BNE) 7,440 Brisbane
27 (SYD) 7,456 Sydney
28 (DFW) 8,037 Dallas
29 (SFO) 8,100 San Francisco
30 (IAH) 8,165 Houston
31 (LAX) 8,339 Los Angeles
32 (AKL) 8,833 Auckland {connections via Australia}
...
1 (IAD) 7,064 Washington Dulles (BA)(AF)
2 (ATL) 7,596 Atlanta (KE)
3 (MIA) 7,843 Miami (LH)(AF)
4 (DEL) 1,359 Delhi (LH)(SQ)
5 (JNB) 3,988 Johannesburg (BA)(LH)
6 (KIX) 4,714 Osaka (TG)
7 (NRT) 4,964 Narita (Tokyo) (SQ))TG)
8 (CAN) 5,834 Guangzhou (CZ)

Quote: Pacomartin

Emirates has upped their offer again to 200 neoA380's as a further inducement to the manufacturer to begin the program. No word if there is a stick along with this carrot (i.e. we will cancel the last order we made for final fifty of the current version).

>>>>begin the program...
you don't mean begin production, but that is surely a prime element, what you mean is begin Design and Development of a Neo380 which is a term for an as yet undefined upgrade relating to noise and fuel economy of the existing A380 program.

"""Emirates if now flying to all but 8 airports that have the facilities to service the A380. For this airlines to have hundreds of A380's, they have to expand to new markets, because it is unlikely they can fly double and triple A380's to their current markets."""
They are hiring and training First Officers like crazy and will surely need more planes for all of them to fly. Will the "Middle East" have a more extensive "grab" soon, such as all the foreign buying in Australia? Or do they plane more trips of A380 ideal range?

It seems funny that an airline would go to this extent for a manufacturer. It is hard to believe that this jet is so insanely profitable, yet almost no airline will touch it."""
Profit is not as meaningful a word in the Middle East as Power or Influence.
Will Airbus become a captive manufacturer if it makes only zillions of Neos? And can't fulfill other countries orders? Then ALL other airlines will shortly face aged, fuel hungry fleets. Will a stick emerge when deliveries reach "Point X"?
Will the Emirates wind up with a stock share of Airbus in return for so many orders?

Quote: Fleastiff

you don't mean begin production, but that is surely a prime element, what you mean is begin Design and Development of a Neo380 which is a term for an as yet undefined upgrade relating to noise and fuel economy of the existing A380 program.

It is mostly a question of incorporation of design elements used in other models into the A380 program. But yes, production would not begin until the year 2020. Emirates has discussed in secret goals for the neoA380, but in general terms a 10% reduction in fuel consumption is necessary.

Emirates ultimately believes that airports will be improved to service the A380. As an example they cite their A380 destinations of Mauritius (an island nation of under 1.3 million in population) and Manchester UK (city/urban population of 0.5/2.5 million). If these smaller areas were willing to modify their airports for a plane which is at present only flown by Emirates to their cities, then Emirates believes that hundreds of airports will eventually follow suit.


Maritius and Manchester are smallest airports served by A380


Perhaps profit and power go hand in hand. I don't believe that the USA commercial airlines sell any first class seats above $11,000 round trip (except for some London New York seats which are over $16,000). Presumably the clients who have more money than that are all leasing private jets. Emirates is regularly selling seats for more than that on their A380.

Emirates sees the 777-9 as supportive of its A380 fleet, not a replacement. Its commitment to the A380 remains solid. The 777-9 is most likely to replace 777-300ERs.

Progress Eagle concept plane , 3 decks, looks amazing. I hope to live to see this :-)


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2982691/Flight-2030-Super-quiet-Progress-Eagle-concept-plane-three-decks-generates-power-314-ft-wingspan.html

Interesting concepts but are they fully operational anywhere yet?

Most power is used on take offs and GoArounds. Solar cells are cheap and malleable but how well do they withstand lightning strikes?
Storing electricity to be used to extend range would be good.

Nothing "so futuristic" will affect present sales.

Quote: terapined

Progress Eagle concept plane , 3 decks, looks amazing.

I don't know. "Super-conductive engines"? "Quantum mechanics"? "Today's physics"?

There is but a thin line between genius and crackpot.

I look forward to the day when no flight to and from anywhere in the world will last over 6 hours.

Quote: Nareed

I look forward to the day when no flight to and from anywhere in the world will last over 6 hours.

Concorde had an average cruise speed of 1334 mph. As the longest commercial flight today is Sydney to Dallas is 8,580 miles divided by 1334 =6.43 hours plus time to take off and land.

As I understand it, the holy grail of commercial supersonic transport would allow you to fly LAX to Tokyo two round trips in 24 hours. As that is a 5451 mile trip that means 22,000 miles in 24 hours, or roughly an average of 1000 mph given 2 hours of time on ground.

Your specification probably implies sub-orbital flight paths. As I said earlier, sub-orbital transport may have more commercial potential than simply going Mach 2.0 for long distances, as people have been shown to be willing to pay $250K to take a suborbital flight to nowhere.

Quote: Pacomartin

Your specification probably implies sub-orbital flight paths. As I said earlier, sub-orbital transport may have more commercial potential than simply going Mach 2.0 for long distances, as people have been shown to be willing to pay $250K to take a suborbital flight to nowhere.

>people have been shown to be willing to pay $250k to take a suborbital flight to nowhere.
Nope. Young rich adventures ... maybe there is a market in it but how soon would you run out of customers?

Now Federal Express made alot of money with commercially scheduled package flights.
And Air Taxis make alot of money with on demand package and personnel flight. (Get these crews out to oil derricks, get these spare parts to remote factories, get these technicians there too and get these executives to a meeting NOW).

That might be a better way to look at suborbital flights than "adventure tourism for the rich who otherwise might go sky diving".

Quote: Pacomartin

Concorde had an average cruise speed of 1334 mph. As the longest commercial flight today is Sydney to Dallas is 8,580 miles divided by 1334 =6.43 hours plus time to take off and land.

The Concorde was a good start. Further development was needed. It still is. Some has been made by the military, but little beyond fighter aircraft.

Quote:

Your specification probably implies sub-orbital flight paths.

Not at all. it would if I wanted no flight to last more than 40 minutes.