Airbus A380-800 (“A380″)
Type: Wide-bodied
Passenger capacity:
- 853 (economy class only)
- 525 (three classes)
Range: 15 400km (A380-800)
Litres/passenger 100km: < 3L (as reported by Airbus – see below)
Entered service: October 2007 (Singapore Airlines)
List price: $375.3m (30 November 2011)
A380 – story and specs
The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger airliner internationally. The term “jumbo jet” was used in the past to describe large planes like the Boeing 747 and the A380 carries the nickname “superjumbo”. At this time, it is the only commercially used aircraft in the world with its passenger capacity. It was designed as a rival to the large aircraft of Boeing, and at present Boeing has no model to match the A380′s passenger capacity. The Boeing 747, the stalwart of long-haul air travel for many years, has 49% less floor space and in a maximum two-class cabin configuration the 747-400 seats about 300 fewer people.
The A380 cost Airbus more than $10bn to develop.
Variants
The A380-800 is still a very new plane by industry standards, but there are proposed variants at this stage. These are the A380-900, which would be even larger and would be able to seat about 900 passengers in a single economy-class set-up, the A380-800F freighter, and the A380-800R, which would have a longer range (about 18000km) due to additional tanks.
None of these variants has entered production yet, although orders were initially taken for the freighter. Airbus already has a sizable production backlog on its existing orders.
Industry interest and reputation
There has been substantial interest in the A380, with more than 200 aircraft ordered and more than 60 delivered to date. The largest buyer so far has been Emirates Airlines, with a massive order of 90 planes (although the airline secured a hefty discount on the purchase price).
While one of the A380′s selling points is its enormous passenger capacity, this is not the only feature of an aircraft that is important in assessing its suitability for long-haul routes. Fuel efficiency and range are more important because even if an aircraft can carry more people than any other plane, if its range is too short it simply cannot be used by certain airlines throughout their entire flight network, and if it is less fuel-efficient than other planes the cost structure of its operation may discourage airlines from buying it. Cruising speed is another factor because long-haul flights are already of a notorious duration and some routes involve more than one flight. A slower plane is going to add hours to the journey, which may discourage passengers from using that particular airline.
In all of these considerations, the A380 delivers a performance that is typical for the industry. Its range and cruising speed are similiar to the other planes being used on the same routes. Yet the fuel efficiency of the A380 is debatable at this time because its average occupancy figure is not known. Airbus claims that the aircraft uses less than 3L of fuel per passenger 100km, but this has been disputed because the figure supplied by Airbus was calculated using 555 passengers on the flight and also does not take into account any luggage or cargo. Transporting more than 800 passengers on the flight and adding their luggage to the sum may cause a significant deterioration of the fuel efficiency figure. However, even if the fuel efficiency figure were to be several decimal points higher, it would still not be comparable to other aircraft because no other plane carries as many passengers. If one considers that it may take two or even three aircraft to service the same number of passengers on the same route, the ultimate savings made possible by the A380 are then apparent.
Increased passenger capacity makes the A380 useful on routes which are used by many passengers. Any aircraft that carries so many people can potentially replace more than one other aircraft on the same route. Fewer planes on the same route means less congestion, better punctuality and fewer flights to coordinate at the airports at either end of the route.
However, this advantages comes with two issues. Firstly, it only makes sense to deploy a plane like the A380 where passenger demand actually supports that deployment. The demand should therefore preferably not be seasonal, either.
The second issue is the suitability of the airport facilities to the aircraft. Not all airports are able to accommodate the A380, which is why, for example, it isn’t going to be used in South America, even though passenger demand there would support its use on some routes. Some airports therefore need to assess whether the benefit of having fewer flights can be offset against the cost of upgrading or constructing adequate facilities. Airlines who do decide to use the A380 may then stop using airports who refuse to accommodate it, while other airlines may be unable to use the A380 at all because their local bases do not conform to its operating requirements.
The other problem that airports face is that, if the demand for air travel grows significantly, they will need to offer more flights, which they may not be able to do with their current infrastructure. If that is the case, then they have two options – make the airport bigger so that it can accommodate more flights every day, or start using bigger aircraft. Once again, role-players will have to compare the relative cost and feasibility of expanded airport infrastructure as opposed to the investment that the airlines can be asked to make in their fleet capacity.
But the situation is not even that simple. The catch is that if airlines use larger aircraft to start delivering more and more passengers to airports, the processing capacity of the passengers themselves in those airports is also going to come into question. If it already takes an hour to clear the queue at the immigration desk after a Boeing 747 flight has landed, carrying only about 400 people, what is going to happen when an A380 lands and disgorges twice as many? In this way, airport infrastructure and fleet management are related, and this once again places a limitation on where the A380 can be used at present. It is interesting to note that the largest customer for the A380 to date, Emirates Airlines, is based in the United Arab Emirates, where both the airline and its home airport are owned exclusively by the national government. Other airlines may not be so fortunate in that their base airports are owned by private companies and negotiating improved or expanded infrastructure may therefore be harder or impossible.
The basic technical standard for accommodating the A380 at an airport is that the airport is able to accommodate the Boeing 747. If the runway is able to allow for the take-off and landing of the 747, it should also be able to accommodate the A380. In terms of weight, the A380 weighs more than the 747 but it has more wheels on its landing gear, so if a runway can sustain the weight of a 747 then it should also be able to take the weight of the A380. A380 test aircraft have visited several large airports around the world to assess the modifications made there, but runway reinforcement is not seen as necessary.
Passenger service is also affected by this issue of compatibility because lifts and boarding structures need to be able to ascend to the A380′s upper deck. Even if they do, boarding still takes more than half an hour. But this is part of the experience of using a large wide-bodied long-haul plane. You should not expect instant boarding unless you are flying in a private chartered jet.
Another reported advantage of the A380 is its lower noise output. It produces significantly less noise than other aircraft on take-off and landing. This is a remarkable achievement because it has four engines. The interior of the cabin also experiences about half the sound level of other aircraft, so passenger comfort is therefore improved.
Passenger experience
The A380 has not been in service for many years and so assessing passenger feedback is still harder than with the more established rival aircraft. The key difference seems to be the massively increased cabin space that the A380 offers. Having so much space allows for bigger seating classes but also for more luxury features such as bars, lounges and showers.
As an example, first class nowadays sometimes comes with seats which fold out 180 degrees into flat 2m beds. If an airline tries to install that kind of seating in an older plane it is probably not going to be able to have many such seats. In contrast, Singapore Airlines, the launch airline of the A380, has configured its A380s to have only 471 seats, which is far below the three-class maximum of 525. But then Singapore Airlines is a 5-star airline which offers what is probably the most opulent first-class product in international commercial aviation.
It should be added that, at this time, no airline that uses the A380 has actually deployed the maximum 853 economy-class seating arrangement. Depending on economic circumstances, however, it will be interesting to see at what stage international carriers start introducing single-class long-haul flights (economy class only), or if they are going to maintain their more lucrative upper-class products on those routes. A high service rating is important in brand marketing but passenger numbers determine revenue.
Concerning cabin configuration, the A380 has both decks in a wide-bodied capacity. This makes the cabins more spacious than other planes. Seating room exceeds that offered on other aircraft, even if it is only by a matter of centimeters, although one commentator described his business class seat as sofa-like. Economy class can be arranged to have the seats eleven across, which is highly unusual – ten is more common. Generally, cabin configurations and amenities vary from airline to airline, and you can read more about them in the airlines section of this site.
Other benefits are that the cabin interior is quieter than other planes (as discussed above) and also that the air pressurization is higher. The atmosphere in the A380 cabin is equivalent to the air at an altitude of 1520m, whereas in the Boeing 747-400 the equivalent altitude is 2440m. However, the equivalent altitude is not something that passengers should be concerned about, and it is never mentioned in airline marketing.
One aspect of the A380 that has stumped some people and is indeed curious is the presence of ashtrays in the cabin, despite illuminated no-smoking signs. This arrangement may be the result of aviation regulations in the USA but it is peculiar, since the A380 came into service only in the last five years. Since it is unlikely that the A380 is going to be used for private charter operations any time soon, the presence of the ashtrays is all the more strange. But once again, this is the type of feature that an airline can modify or remove themselves.
