Can the A380 Bring the Party Back to the Skies?
Earl Evleth
Can the A380 Bring the Party Back to the Skies?
By Bill Saporito Monday, Nov. 23, 2009
By my watch, the takeoff roll for Air France Flight 380 lasted 35 seconds.
"39 seconds," corrected Laurent Bonnard, a French historian, as we chatted
in a lounge area later. Either way, all the planiacs on board Air France's
inaugural A380 Airbus flight from New York City to Paris agreed the takeoff
was a thing of beauty. Imagine an apartment building with wings that steps
into the sky with the quiet grace of a ballet dancer. The lack of engine
noise � it's 50% quieter than a 747-400 on takeoff � was downright eerie.
The A380 is so big it's difficult to sense its speed, and its upper deck is
so far away from the engines the noise dissipates.
The A380 is the largest airliner to ever part with the pavement: it can hold
as many as 800 passengers in full sardine-can configuration, although Air
France has mercifully limited the crowd to 535 in first, business and coach
classes. In preparation for its entry into service in 2007, airports widened
runways and hardened taxiways. Its catering trucks rise two stories off the
ground to reach the galleys.
France's national carrier got the debut of the Europe-built jet off with
considerable �lan. The flight leaving John F. Kennedy Airport was packed
with partying Francophiles, journalists and airline junkies. A band on board
played "C'est Magnifique" before takeoff and during the flight; birthdays
were celebrated; the champagne flowed.
Air France is trying to bring back the party to the skies. There are six
bars on the plane, which encourages passengers to mingle (in their own
class, of course). In the front of the upper deck, in the business section,
there's even an art gallery of sorts: flat-screen TVs displaying digital
previews of the New York and Paris cultural scenes, a somewhat lavish use of
space.
The A380s standard coach seat is as good as it's going to get in the
claustrophobic calamity that is air travel. The chair is 19-in. (48 cm)
wide, affording about 5% more room than on other jets on this route. There's
a 8.4 in. (21 cm) video screen with about 3,000 hours of programming, (about
as long an overnight flight can feel). Alex Hervet, an A380 design engineer,
explained to me that he repositioned the hinge point on the chair back an
inch higher so that your knees won't get squeezed when the guy in front of
you reclines his seat. Subtle LED lighting throughout the cabin changes with
the time of day. But let's not kid ourselves, it's still a coach seat.
Business-class travelers, ensconced in their designer flatbed seats, face a
full French press of everything that Gallic cuisiniers can throw at them:
menus by three-star chef Alain Ducasse, vin extraordinaire, and of course
the smugness of knowing you're not in coach.
Like all new jetliners, the A380 was controversial in conception, delayed in
construction and years late on arrival. But none could have predicted that
the A380 would fly into the most turbulent economy in the history of
aviation. Air France ordered a dozen of the $300 million aircraft in 2000,
when the economic forecast called for steady growth. By the time Air France
took delivery nine years later, the industry was on its knees and the
big-spending investment bankers whose business- and first-class tickets make
up the bulk of airline profits had largely evaporated.
Aircraft analyst Richard L. Aboulafia of Teal Group has called the A380 "the
worst product launch decision since New Coke." The A380 was born in a
hub-and-spoke world where flights between countries were regulated. Now,
airlines are freer to go point-to-point, avoiding the major hubs � and
making 800-passenger megajets less necessary. (Emirates, the first to fly
the A380 into New York City, quietly withdrew the plane from its JFK
flights.)
Analysts such as Aboulafia see a future that favors Boeing's smaller,
all-composite 787 (assuming it ever gets built). Airbus is already
developing a new not-so-jumbo jet, the A350, for that purpose. But Air
France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon is sticking by his hub strategy. The skies
are getting crowded, and he'd rather have the A380 to collect passengers in
Paris from all over Europe and deliver them to places like New York and
Johannesburg. "It's just like the big cities today," he says. "It doesn't
make sense to add a lot of small cars. You need to add buses." (Read Airbus
vs. Boeing: Bigger vs. Faster.)
To the jetizens aboard the A380 as it made a somewhat wobbly landing, some
of whom have come from as far as Australia to be among the first to fly it,
the arguments about economics and hub-and-spoke miss the point. The Air
France A380 is new, massive, filled with technology and right now the only
one flying the Atlantic's most glamorous route. It's a glimpse of better
days, when flying was still an adventure, even if it never ceases to be a
chore.
Bill Bonde { 'by a commodius vicus of recirculation' )
Earl Evleth wrote:
>
> Can the A380 Bring the Party Back to the Skies?
> By Bill Saporito Monday, Nov. 23, 2009
>
>
>
> By my watch, the takeoff roll for Air France Flight 380 lasted 35 seconds.
> "39 seconds," corrected Laurent Bonnard, a French historian, as we chatted
> in a lounge area later. Either way, all the planiacs on board Air France's
> inaugural A380 Airbus flight from New York City to Paris agreed the takeoff
> was a thing of beauty. Imagine an apartment building with wings that steps
> into the sky with the quiet grace of a ballet dancer. The lack of engine
> noise � it's 50% quieter than a 747-400 on takeoff � was downright eerie.
> The A380 is so big it's difficult to sense its speed, and its upper deck is
> so far away from the engines the noise dissipates.
>
> The A380 is the largest airliner to ever part with the pavement:
>
I can see some value in this but Boeing also has value in its idea
of direct flights, as opposed to hub flying. The plane I was
interested in was one that used ground effects, therefore it could
only fly over the oceans, to get its size much bigger than an A380.
The idea would be to really lower the cost of international
flights. We'll have to see how the eco version of the A380 does
that.
--
What I hate about flip flops is the flip and the flop.
Runge17
"Bill Bonde { 'by a commodius vicus of recirculation' )"
<tribuyl...@yahoo.co.uk> a �crit dans le message de
news:4B0AD2EC...@yahoo.co.uk...
Gregory Morrow
--
Best
Greg
Earl Evleth
> The idea would be to really lower the cost of international
> flights. We'll have to see how the eco version of the A380 does
> that.
"The A380's efficiency and advanced technology result in 15-20 per cent
lower and consumes less than three litres of fuel per passenger over 100
km."
That is over 100 miles to the gallon. A newer 747 will perform
about the same. However the coming generation of aircraft will
not get 200, there is not a quantum leap in fuel efficiency.
But for a fleet of planes a 10% improvement is a big help.
Another main feature is that the engine noise is half of a 747, and its
quiet character has been commented on.