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posted by chromas on Monday February 11 2019, @06:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the wings-and-prayers dept.

A380 Cancellations by Qantas Raise new Questions About the Superjumbo's Future:

Australia's Qantas (QABSY) said Thursday that it had scrapped longstanding plans to buy eight more of the double-decker planes

The A380 has been a major disappointmentfor Airbus ( EADSF) , racking up less than a quarter of the sales the European company forecast when it first introduced the giant jetliner more than a decade ago. The underwhelming demand has fueled questions about how long the manufacturer can justify continuing production of the iconic aircraft.

[...] Other airlines including Virgin Atlantic have ditched plans to buy the aircraft in the past year. Airbus now has only 79 firm orders for it, according to FlightGlobal data.

The program's future could hinge on Dubai-based Emirates, the largest A380 operator with more than 100 of the aircraft in service. The Gulf carrier last year ordered a further 20 of the superjumbo jets, with the option to buy an additional 16 on top of that.

But Airbus said last month that it was renegotiating the deal with Emirates following reports that the airline was looking to switch its orders to the smaller and newer A350.

According to Wikipedia, an A380 has seating for 575-853 depending on variant and configuration.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Monday February 11 2019, @06:48AM (8 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 11 2019, @06:48AM (#799415) Journal

    The 747 is the one true jumbo and will forever remain so.... As always, when you want quality, you buy American, even now.

    The 747 has been involved in 146 aviation accidents and incidents, including 61 accidents and hull losses which resulted in 3722 fatalities. [wikipedia.org]

    - that's an average of 3 incidents/year since the launch in 1970.

    The A380 has been involved in two aviation occurrences and no hull loss accidents with no fatalities as of January 2019. [wikipedia.org] - that's 0.18 incidents/year since the launch in 2007.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:10AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:10AM (#799424)

    Fleet size is not at all comparable. There are way more 747 flying. It also isn't right to compare old times, with different navigation gear and safety protocols. The 747 even got bombed out of the sky (Libya) and shot out of the sky (USSR).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:25AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:25AM (#799428)

      Fleet size is not at all comparable.

      Ok. Let's take operational problems on 787 [wikipedia.org] then
      - fuel leaks - to the point of "Footage of the leak taken by passengers shows fuel gushing out of the left wing of the aircraft. The leak became known to pilots only after it was pointed out by concerned passengers" (oh, goody! Quality American avionics? Passengers with iPhones!)
      - parts reliability issues
      - nose gear collapse
      - in certain weather conditions "erroneous low airspeed may be displayed ..."
      - Lithium-ion battery problems [wikipedia.org] - "three passengers received minor injuries during the evacuation. Inspection revealed a battery fire."

       

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @05:13PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @05:13PM (#799610)

        a. You switched planes.

        b. There is still a fleet size difference. Boeing is making crazy numbers of the 787. The 380 is rare.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @06:17PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @06:17PM (#799659)

          The 380 is rare.

          Thank goodness for that! Let's hope it goes extinct! It's a giant step backwards in sensible aircraft design. It's a *Brooklyn Bridge for sale*. Emirates was told to buy, or be invaded.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:10AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:10AM (#799425)

    How many 747s have been wrecked since 2007? Consider that the 380 flies maybe 1/100th of the daily miles a 747 does, and also consider the type of work they do.

    Let's see how the scarebus does in 50 years. In fact, how much you want to bet there won't be a single A-380 in airworthy condition in 40 years more time? They just aren't worth it. They make for lousy cargo aircraft. It was a bad business decision from the beginning. They built it to show off, purely for bling, gold colored plastic for low class people with lots of money. Throw it into the Pacific with all the other plastic.

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday February 11 2019, @07:12AM

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday February 11 2019, @07:12AM (#799426)

    It's the most comfortable plane I've ever cattle-classed on intercontinental flights.
    But airlines want it to have a bigger cargo hold, and lose two engines.
    They just need to get certified to fly on two engines right after takeoff, and find a way to reduce the drag from the other two. I don't think that they could pull a 330 (mount 2 engines only on the same wing as the 340)

    There was a good AJ article recently about Vietnamese major airports being way over capacity, and airlines being desperate for slots. That's where the A380 was supposed to shine. There's still hope as airports and pilot numbers have not followed the Asian growth

  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Monday February 11 2019, @08:01AM

    by mendax (2840) on Monday February 11 2019, @08:01AM (#799437)

    The 747 has been involved in 146 aviation accidents and incidents, including 61 accidents and hull losses which resulted in 3722 fatalities.

    I do not recall any of these hull losses being due to a design flaw, unless you want to include in that category TWA flight 800's [wikipedia.org] bad wiring problem, a problem on a very old and worn out 747. They've been due to human error, shoddy maintenance and repairs, bombs, Russian fighter jets, and that sort of thing. The 747 is a very safe airliner, as safe as the A380, especially those that are flying today.

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  • (Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Monday February 11 2019, @03:29PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday February 11 2019, @03:29PM (#799532)

    583 of those fatalities were in a single incident [wikipedia.org] when 2 collided into one another on the ground. It was caused by the KLM captain being an jackass, and could have happened in any two airliners.

    All fatal 747 incidents since 2010 [wikipedia.org] have been cargo aircraft, which seem to have a significantly lower safety standard.

    That being said, the 747 is going away as a passenger aircraft. The hub-and-spoke system of air travel is going away with smaller more efficient planes taking the duty.

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