Forum menu
787 is the best I've flown on simply because the cabin pressure is higher therefore the landing is less painful on the ears.
I know airlines don't care about looks but for me the poor old A380 is the ugliest commercial jet in recent history whereas the 747 has style.
The future was supposed to be hubs but reality has turned out go be smaller planes flying direct.
Was looking on flight radar today and spotted 3 Emerates A380s right behind each other. All from Dubai, one heading to Sydney, one Melbourne and one Auckland.
Was then hovering over bristol watching the Beluga after it did a turn around our place and spotted a BA A380 heading to the USA and one coming back. They stand out quite well of flight radar.
It was too late to have the desired impact IMO. The World changed and it's market disappeared despite air traffic increasing.
These days it's all about the smaller, more efficient and more regular flights and international flights from more local airports. Yet again Bowing got their market research spot on compared to the Europeans.
The Dubai Oz/Nz route is one of those that actually makes sense for it, you need a half way, lots of people heading the same way and in reality Oz works on a hub model with lots of nice internal flights to link up to.
I was flying Edinburgh to Birmingham a few months ago. Boarded the plane, was about the taxi and the Captain welcomed us aboard the flight to Shetland
I've never complained when I've been upgraded.
yeah Oz does work but it kind of has to. Dubai also in a way as it's a very concentrated area of rich people.
The planes being stripped for parts are German owned lease planes. No one wants to lease them so stripping them down is the only option.
As for Broughton we are doing our best to get the new wings built there with a lot of UK investment. It's a fantastic place and some serious investment there. I suspect I know what is going to happen with the current A380 wing building.
It is a shame Filton is gone as a manufacturing hub and the airport is now turning into a housing estate. It would make more sense for them to move the current Airbus plant down to near Bristol airport but they have just build a new government funded R&D centre.
My twopeneth’s worth...
I fly an A330. It’s long range (7000+nm) and you only need 320 economy or 250 mixed class to fill it up. The A350 & B787 similar-ish but better range.
The A380 takes a lot of filling and ticket sales. It is limited into which airports for normal and emergency use (yes my 330 is too, but can fit into most international airports). If one breaks you don’t often have a spare 380, but many 330/350 787-sized aircraft are available for short notice charter.
Twins are getting longer range (787 London to Perth!) and have much better fuel burn, plus the unit cost and servicing costs are far less. Plus they’re reliable enough to do long oceanic legs (I’ve done 10h oceanic legs recently).
All these factors count against the poor 380. So a great jet, supposedly nice to fly and great as pax, but sadly time marches on.