Post by Jkkw on Jan 26, 2014 15:48:31 GMT 1
Not so good news, I was talking to a flight attendant on a Qantas flight a few days ago and he said that management was considering the possibility of cancelling all remaining frames on order and have an A380 fleet size of 12. He also said the airline looked at putting the A380 on the Dallas route however there was a weight issue and added (if I remember and heard correctly) that the tanks could not be filled to maximum capacity. I'm not sure how accurate his information is although let's hope that this is merely part of the process that all airlines take to consider everything and fingers crossed that no action to cancellation will be taken.
I also asked him about load factors and he said (for the routes he flies, which are all international routes excluding A380 flights) most flights are pretty full with the only slight exception being the Dallas flights which are load restricted and requires (if I remember correctly) 60 vacant seats (I'm not sure whether this applies to flights both to and from Dallas). Although this does not include flights flown by the A380 it does cover some A380 routes (SYD-LAX and SYD-HKG) which are operated by both A380s and 747/A330s. Out of interest I also asked about the Santiago route and he said that flight was normally full so in my opinion that strengthens the need for Qantas to have more A380s. I didn't ask and he didn't say anything about whether load factors were different in the different classes so I presume he's talking about the whole aircraft and not just the economy section.
Improvements to newer frames should solve the weight issue on Dallas flights (unless it is something to do with pavement loading or engine performance) and with generally good load factors, it would be stupid for the airline to cancel the A380s, doing so will only put them in a worse financial position as they continue to fly older, less fuel efficient aircraft. If they do cancel, it might be the reason as to why Airbus is pushing 420min ETOPS on the A350 and I can see QF converting part of the A380 order for A350s to replace the 744ER on routes to Dallas, Johanesburg and Santiago.
I also asked him about load factors and he said (for the routes he flies, which are all international routes excluding A380 flights) most flights are pretty full with the only slight exception being the Dallas flights which are load restricted and requires (if I remember correctly) 60 vacant seats (I'm not sure whether this applies to flights both to and from Dallas). Although this does not include flights flown by the A380 it does cover some A380 routes (SYD-LAX and SYD-HKG) which are operated by both A380s and 747/A330s. Out of interest I also asked about the Santiago route and he said that flight was normally full so in my opinion that strengthens the need for Qantas to have more A380s. I didn't ask and he didn't say anything about whether load factors were different in the different classes so I presume he's talking about the whole aircraft and not just the economy section.
Improvements to newer frames should solve the weight issue on Dallas flights (unless it is something to do with pavement loading or engine performance) and with generally good load factors, it would be stupid for the airline to cancel the A380s, doing so will only put them in a worse financial position as they continue to fly older, less fuel efficient aircraft. If they do cancel, it might be the reason as to why Airbus is pushing 420min ETOPS on the A350 and I can see QF converting part of the A380 order for A350s to replace the 744ER on routes to Dallas, Johanesburg and Santiago.