FLUG REVUE February 2005: A380 Roll-out nears

February 2005

AIRBUS A380: A NEW DIMENSION

By Volker K. Thomalla

The A380 is a reality. On 18 January it will be officially unveiled to the world. The Airbus megaliner will open the door to a new dimension in aircraft construction.

Richard Carcaillet, Director Product Marketing for the Airbus A380, has no doubt about it: “The airlines already need the A380 today.” You only have to look at the traffic flows, he says. 80 percent of all flight movements of the Boeing 747 are between only 37 airports. Moreover, there are over 1,100 Boeing 747 flights a week, in which two jumbos belonging to a single airline take off for the same destination within the space of two hours. Since airport capacity is not expanding at the same rate as passenger numbers, the solution is to employ the A380 which, in the passenger version, will typically offer over 555 seats.

Airbus A380 assembly

The airports are also enthusiastic about the advent of the “Superbus”. Eryl Smith, Business Strategy Planning Director of BAA at London Heathrow, said, “More passengers per flight and more traffic without an increase in the number of flight movements is a good thing for airports, airlines and environment alike.” Bill DeCota, Aviation Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said: “The entry into service of the A380 is just as important for JFK International Airport as the advent of the Boeing 747 was in its time.”

The A380 is technologically a huge step forward in civil aircraft construction. It is the first jetliner to have two full-length passenger decks plus an under-floor cargo deck. The challenges for the designers were huge. In particular, there was a danger that the aircraft would get too heavy. The maximum take-off weight of the passenger version of the A380 is 560 tonnes and the maximum landing weight 386 tonnes.

Virtually all the requirements from the airlines which helped to draw up the aircraft specification began with the word “low”: low maintenance costs, lower fuel consumption, lower emissions and lower runway length. Only two important requirements for the new giant began with the word “more”: more range and more comfort. The yardstick against which the A380 has to be measured was always the Boeing 747-400.

Thanks to the latest materials and use of the latest technologies, Airbus is guaranteeing to the airlines that all the requirements will be satisfied. The idea of two full-length passenger decks means that the airlines have an unprecedented flexibility as regards cabin furnishings. Thus, according to Richard Carcaillet, there are bound to be some airlines which choose to have an on-board bar. Serious consideration is also being given to a fitness room and a duty-free shop on the aircraft. All the same, on long-haul routes the A380 will fly up to 8,000nm (14,816 km) non-stop.

It was also a customer requirement that the turnaround times of the new airliner should not exceed those of previous aircraft. Passengers can board the A380 via two or three passenger bridges, depending on what the airline wants.

Already today about 60 airports are being prepared for operations with the A380. These include Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, Incheon, Singapore and Narita. By 2010 some 100 airports are expected to be able to handle it.

The Airbus A380 freighter has also been launched in parallel to the passenger version. The A380F is designed to carry 150 tonnes of freight non-stop over a distance of 8,000nm (14,816km). To do this, its maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) will be 590 tonnes, about 30 tonnes higher than on the passenger version. This means that the MTOW of the freighter will almost equal that of the heaviest aircraft in the world so far, the An-225, which has an MTOW of 600 tonnes.

Entry into service of the A380F is scheduled for 2008. So far three customers have ordered this version: the leasing company ILFC (5), the airline Emirates (2) and the American express freight company, FedEx (10).

From FLUG REVUE 2/2005

Last updated 10 January 2005

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