FLUG REVUE July 2004: Lufthansa prepares for A380

LUFTHANSA PREPARES FOR A380

By Sebastian Steinke

Burkard Wigger, General Manager of the “A380 Entry into Service” project at Lufthansa (LH), summed up his biggest challenge in a presentation in Toulouse. “We are asking for an aircraft which is 40 percent bigger than a 747 to be processed in the same time. We know that cost-effective operations depend to a high degree on the detailed design.”

Airbus A380

A complete turnaround between the A380 landing and taking off again should take no longer than 90 minutes, the time required for the 747. This means first of all disembarking all 555 Lufthansa passengers plus baggage and freight. Then the plane has to be refuelled, cleaned and its stores topped up before the next 555 passengers embark with their luggage and freight.

With his team of eight to ten experts, the electrical engineer, who has a PhD and also managed the entry into service of the A340-200 and FlyNet, co-ordinates the requirements and any requests for modification in dialogue with the manufacturer's plant and some 100 Lufthansa specialists. “All successful aircraft programmes rely on inputs from the airlines,” says Wigger. Almost like clairvoyants, the experts have to identify and redress any problems as early as possible. The spectrum of their observations and analyses ranges from the ground loading of the wheels as the plane executes a turn through to the visibility from the cockpit. These are addressed through discussions, design plans, models and simulations.

Since Airbus founded the Large Aircraft Division in 1996, in the run-up to the launch of the A380 programme, the manufacturer has been gathering information from its customers about their requirements in over 100 customer service group meetings. Lufthansa is just one of over twenty large airlines which have been involved in this process. In addition to countless details, the need to satisfy the future QC2 noise standards in London is one of the boldest requirements. Airbus has therefore taken the initiative and raised the fan diameter of the A380 engines. By this means, the noise emitted by the A380-800 during take-off will be quieter than a jumbo, while also requiring only 2,990 metres of runaway length, 550 metres less than the 747. Seat mile costs on the A380, which will carry a price tag of between $250 million and $270 million, should be 15 percent below those of a 747. Wigger explains, “One of the most important factors of competition is the price of a ticket. If you can offer a lower fare, then that is a competitive advantage.”

These days manufacturers and customers are both keen that all modifications should where possible flow into the series as a whole as standard features, rather than following what in the past was a widespread practice of incorporating countless, expensive and invariably different individual requirements for each airline. When an aircraft subsequently ends up on the used aircraft market, in the worst case these individualistic touches can stamp it as an unwanted exotic creature.

Burkard Wigger: “We want to purchase a product that will be the market standard. It is extremely advisable to implement as few specific modifications as possible. So we have to persuade the manufacturer to incorporate our preferences.” Of all the airlines, Lufthansa used to be well-known for sending its own teams of engineers to the manufacturers, who would then leave their mark on the final product. The extra features which the Lufthansa team wanted would range from extra coats of anti-corrosive paint on components that were difficult to access or vents for condensation water through to special kitchen fittings or cockpit preferences. “We are doing the same thing today, but we want everything to be in the standard product,” explains the engineer.

Moreover, Lufthansa chose its relatively late A380-800 delivery date of September 2007 quite deliberately: “Every new product has teething problems, so we don't want to be the first airline to be equipped with the A380.” For a September 2007 delivery date, Lufthansa has to determine all the design details and extra requirements well in advance, by December 2004. These include the rough cabin layout, any recreation rooms for the crew and installation of the FlyNet on-board Internet access system. In October 2005, all the details of the Lufthansa customer design will finally be frozen. Then, in June 2006, the desired exterior paintwork must be chosen.

After the first four aircraft have been delivered, by the spring of 2008, over the next two to three years Lufthansa will take delivery of only a few out of the total of 15 planes it has on order. Wigger is still vague about the destinations to be added later on. “There are potential destination airports, but the routes have not yet been decided. They will be routes which currently have several 747 services.”

Back to the practicalities of ground handling. As one starts the clock for the 90-minute A380 turnaround described above, a whole armada of ground vehicles approaches: aircraft towing tractors, passenger walkways and steps, catering vehicles for the main and upper decks, cleaning vehicles for both floors, hoisting platforms for cargo and baggage, conveyor belts for non-containerised cargo, drinking water vehicles, wastewater vehicles, generating units, compressed air units, air-conditioning units, tankers and pump vehicles.

Naturally both airlines and airports want to avoid as far as possible having to purchase special new vehicles for the A380. Hence, both the heights of the main decks and also the distance between the two most important front cabin doors have to be harmonised with the normal dimensions and door spacing on the Boeing 747. The only really new purchasing requirement is therefore for catering vehicles with lifting platforms which can supply the 8.2m high upper deck level directly.

As Burkard Wigger explains, “The galleys need to be high up because it simply isn't possible to load everything in down below and then bring it up from the inside within 90 minutes.” However, hangar lifting platforms which can serve as a model for catering vehicles already exist for installing seats in the upper deck of the 747. On the ramp, the upper deck lift-truck has to park exactly in front of the inside starboard engine so as to avoid getting in the way of the other work routines. On the other hand, Airbus has already demonstrated how all the doors can be reached in practice on a special A380 fuselage structure in Toulouse.

To reduce costs, Air France Industries and Lufthansa Technik announced on 19 May that they were joining forces to offer component and equipment support services for the A380. The two partners are interested not just in covering the requirements of their own 25 A380's but also in providing services for other airlines operating the A380. The service concept envisages operating a shared equipment pool at A380 hubs, along with logistics and other services.

Despite the underlying time pressure, passengers will probably enter the A380 only through the two first port doors, M1 and M2, on the main deck. They will then be able to reach the upper deck, where most of the Business Class is likely to be accommodated and whose proportions are similar to those of an A340, in relative comfort via a dual-lane staircase inside the nose of the aircraft.

Door M2 will serve as the eye of the needle, through which the hundreds of Economy Class passengers will be led into a main deck that is comparable to a 747. According to calculations made by Lufthansa, the direct connection of passenger walkways to the upper deck will only be worthwhile if it is desirable to have direct access to the upper deck entrances U2 and U3, which are situated behind the wing. But this would require complex bridge constructions which extended over the wings.

By 2010, the A380 will be flying to 60 airports around the world. As far as Frankfurt is concerned, things will become serious in 2006 when the Rhine-Main airport becomes the official alternate airport for the first Emirates aircraft on the Dubai-London route, if for any reason it is not possible to fly to Heathrow.

From page 37 of FLUG REVUE 7/2004

Last updated 11 June 2004

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