Airbus A380 news

[sn26567]

EADS CFO Wilhelm says that there are delivery positions for the A380 in 2015 that need to be filled.

France's economic newspaper La Tribune reports today that Airbus could shave the A380 output by 0.25/month if sales drought continues.

Let's hope that the Paris Air Show will bring some good news.

[sn26567]

Interesting statistics from CAPA on the A380 operations in the world: http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/t ... ths-110352

There are 103 A380s in service as of early May-2013. Emirates has 33 and Singapore Airlines has 19, so when assessing network scheduling, these two and their hubs predominate: of the 1,048 weekly A380 flights, 402 are from Emirates alone. Dubai and Singapore airport see the most A380 flights.

But there are some less predictable statistics. The airport to see the most A380 operators is Hong Kong followed by Paris and Los Angeles. The largest A380 destination that is not (yet) an A380-hub is London Heathrow. The UK and USA are the most common A380 destinations after Australia, Singapore and the UAE. Asia, not the Middle East, sees the most A380 flights; South America sees none. Guangzhou-Shanghai Pudong is the shortest A380 route at 1,202km while Los Angeles-Melbourne is the longest at 12,751km. Qantas and Lufthansa have the highest average sector length while Thai Airways is placing the most number of cycles – about two – on its aircraft per day. Qantas and Air France are placing the least (just over one).

All details in the CAPA article!

[YYZ727]

Interesting article, thanks for the link !

[sn26567]

The first British Airways A380 has just landed at Le Bourget, coming from Hamburg Finkerwerder, to be exhibited at the Paris Air Show.

[sn26567]

The first commercial British Airways A380 flight seems planned for Wednesday! Frankfurt airport lists BA902 as operated by A388.

[sn26567]

Not really news, but a nice picture: the biggest (A380) and the smallest (A318) Airbus head-to-head, both in British Airways colours:

[sn26567]

The first commercial British Airways A380 flight seems planned for Wednesday! Frankfurt airport lists BA902 as operated by A388.

It's actually on Friday, 2 August:

Code: Select all

BA902 LHR0645 – 0930FRA 388
BA910 LHR1430 – 1715FRA 388

BA903 FRA1110 – 1150LHR 388
BA911 FRA1855 – 1935LHR 388

Source: Airline Route

[fcw]

Air France has winter promotions:
Brussels Midi-CDG-JFK and back for 495€ with flights on the A380.

[sn26567]

Qatar Airways’ first Airbus A380, scheduled for delivery in March 2014, has departed Toulouse (by air!) for cabin fitting and painting in Hamburg. Qatar has 10 A380s on order, which will be configured with 517 seats.

London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle will be among the launch routes.

Qatar will take delivery of its first Airbus A380 next March, followed by another two in 2014. Its first A350 is also due to arrive in 2014.


Picture Airbus

[quixoticguide]

Hopefully Hamad airport will be operational when they receive the A380.
Disembarkation using air stairs ?!

[sn26567]

Final assembly of Asiana Airlines' first A380 has started.

[sn26567]

Lufthansa had 14 A380s on order, plus 3 options. Ten of them have been delivered. But now Lufthansa wants to cancel the three options. It has ordered smaller long-haul aircraft and does not need anymore A380s after the 14 of the first order have been delivered.

It seems that Airbus might have difficulties in getting new orders for its flagship aircraft.

[RoMax]

This is how I have read it in the Belgian media, but it is not 100% correct (or at least the story is not complete). Lufthansa ordered 15 A380's back in 2001 with another 5 options. In 2011 they decided to convert two of these options in firm orders. That added up to 17 firm orders and 3 options. In Airbus' most recent overview of September, this order was reduced to 14 and Lufthansa confirmed they don't need more than 14 in the foreseable future because their expansion plans are more conservative than some years ago. The 3 options were also cancelled. So Lufthansa went from 17 firm and 3 options to 14 firm (of which 10 already delivered) and no options.

Air France (operating 9 A380's with 3 more on order) also expressed that they will focus on 787 and A350 sized aircraft as the A380 proved not being a perfect fit for most of their network. There seems to be no indication they will cancel their orders, but earlier this year they did announce to delay the delivery of their latest A380's (like Qantas also did).

It has been almost one year ago since the last A380 order (5 extra for SQ) and since than some differals in deliveries and a small cancelation and not so bright outlook on some orders (Kingfisher (5), Virgin Atlantic (6) and Hong Kong Airlines (10)). Though Airbus made some very strong contracts, making it difficult to cancel the orders for airlines like Hong Kong Airlines (at least according to statements of HKA).
A big contrast compared to the A350-success.

[convair]

How many orders and options to date?

[RoMax]

How many orders and options to date?

259 firm orders, 28 options and 111 deliveries.

Compared to the 747-8, they have just 107 firm orders of which 54 already delivered.

[convair]

Thanks for the info RoMax.

[RoMax]

Thanks for the info RoMax.

No problem

Btw, of the A380 it is 259 firm orders of which 111 delivered (you probably understood it that way, but just to make clear its not the backlog number but the total amount of orders). Last year at the end of October they had 262 orders, but Airbus didn't receive any new orders since than and now recently LH reduced its total A380 order.

[RoMax]

Delta, partly owning Virgin Atlantic, quotes the A380 as follows (as per CEO Richard Anderson): "The A380 is, by definition, an uneconomic airplane unless you're a state-owned enterprise with subsidies.". Well even I have to admit that this quite a bit over the top. But he has a point that the A380 doesn't make any sense in their network or that of Virgin Atlantic.

An analyst of Deutsche Bank expects that Delta will push Virgin not to take their A380's they have on order. First delivery is not sheduled before 2018 anyway and Virgin has always been a bit mysterious about their A380 order (recently Sir Richard Branson said he could see an A380-future for Virgin, but not within the current Virgin).

[Passenger]

Airbus said at a news conference in Sydney that they're not happy with the sales figures for the A380:

article in Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation ... 2vic1.html

[Passenger]

Transaero Airlines' A380 will have 652 seats (in three class configuration), a new airliner record:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinth ... s/3007917/