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The Airbus A380 - known for many years during its
development phase as the Airbus A3XX - will be the largest airliner in the
world by a substantial margin when it enters service. Currently under
test are the first four test aircraft, one of which was revealed to a
large press gathering who saw the A380s new livery.
The worlds largest passenger aircraft took to the
skies recently leaving Blagnac International Airport in Toulouse, France
at 10.29 hours local time from runway 32L. The first flight marks the
beginning of 2,500 hours of test flights on a total of five development
aircraft. The Airbus A380 is expected to enter service during the second
half of 2006 with the first operator Singapore Airlines. The thirteen launch customers include Emirates Airlines, Singapore Airlines,
Air France, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, Korean Air and ILFC.
The new Airbus will initially be sold in two versions: the A380-800, with
the ability to carry 555 passengers in three-class configuration for 8,000
nautical miles (14,800km), and the A380-800F dedicated freighter to carry
150 tonnes 5,600 miles (10.400km). Power is provided by a choice of
Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance GP7200 engines. Airbus intend to
continue their well-established policy of making cockpit layout,
procedures and handling characteristics as similar to other Airbus
aircraft as possible: this reduces crewing and training costs and
increases safety (as crew only have to learn a single set of procedures
for many different types). The passenger version will consist of a full
double decker configuration.
In the years prior to the decision to begin the project, both Airbus and
arch-rival Boeing had spent a great deal of effort on considering the very
large airliner market. Although both manufacturers issued varying
statements from time to time, the unspoken but clear consensus was that
there was probably room for one maker to be profitable in the 600 to 800
seat market segment, but not two. Both were conscious of the graphic
illustration of the business risk involved in splitting a niche market
provided by the simultaneous debut of the Douglas DC-10 and the Lockheed
Tristar: similarly sized tri-jet widebody airliners, either one of which
would have profitably filled the gap between the Douglas DC-8 and the
Boeing 747 if only the other one had not taken half its market. Having
seen first Lockheed and then Douglas run into financial difficulties and
be forced out of the air transport industry, Airbus and Boeing were very
conscious that the decision to build a 600-seat airliner could not be
taken lightly.
Neither manufacturer could afford the enormous capital cost of developing
an all-new airliner, especially one of A380 size, unless there was a
reasonable expectation of having exclusive access to the market segment
and yet neither could afford not to develop a 600-seater if the other did.
To do nothing would be to cede market leadership to the competition.
The initial advantage was with Boeing. Boeing's 747, although designed in
the 1960s, had been kept up-to-date and was larger than Airbus' largest
jet, the A340. For many airlines, the extra size of the
747 made that type
a "must buy" for their highest density routes, and the cost advantages of
fleet commonality were an incentive to buy smaller Boeings as well. There
was room to stretch the 747-400 and still retain reasonable seat-mile
costs, while the A340, as an already-stretched version of the twin-jet
A330, was approaching its upper limit.
After years of design studies and airline surveys, Airbus finally made the
decision to go ahead with the $US10.7 billion A380 project in 1999. The
design strategy was carefully crafted. Merely by being very large, the
A380 could achieve much better seat-mile costs than any other aircraft
(just as the 747 had done in 1969). Because the A340 wing was too small to
be efficient at the sort of gross weights required for a 600-seater, an
all-new design was needed. Given that the cost of starting from scratch
was necessary in any case, Airbus chose not to select a wing that would be
optimally efficient at around the 600 tonne maximum gross weight of the
A380, but to aim it at the 750 tonne class instead. In doing this they
sacrificed some fuel efficiency (because the A380 wing is too big for it)
but the sheer size of the design coupled with the incremental advances in
technology over the years still allows Airbus to claim 15% better
economics than a 747 or an A340. The payoff for Airbus is that it will be
a relatively easy task to make still bigger versions of the A380 which
will reach their optimum cost-efficiency somewhere around the 700 to 800
passenger mark - close to twice the size of a 747-400.
For Boeing, the announcement of the A380 was a major blow: already faced
with heavy expenditure to replace the aging mid-sized 767 line, Boeing
were then placed in the awkward position of having to replace their
flagship 747 as well, or else cede market leadership to Europe. Boeing's
first action was to announce the Sonic Cruiser concept - a 767-sized
near-sonic aircraft that would compete on speed instead of size and
economics, but a general lack of market interest has seen this project
cancelled. Boeing has announced a plan to replace the both the 757 and 767
with a totally new plane called the 7E7 this
plane is being engineered to reduce both running and servicing cost, hence
the "E" for economical in the model name.
Despite the cyclical downturn that first gripped the airline industry in
2001, the A380 has been ordered by nine airlines so far. Perhaps more
significantly, Airbus holds a substantial order from the giant aircraft
leasing company IFLC, which indicates that industry analysts expect
airline demand for aircraft in this size class to be strong in the later
years of the decade. Current firm A380 orders stand at 103, including 17
freighter versions. Break-even is estimated to be around 250 to 300 units.
Emirates have ordered over 42 of these airframes.
Initial publicity, particularly from the airlines which have ordered it,
has stressed the ability of the A380 to provide increased room and
comfort, with open space areas to be used as relaxation space, bars, duty
free shops, and the like. Historically, the same type of prediction has
always been made when a new, larger aircraft is announced - the 747 is an
obvious example - but the economics of airline operation are such that the
extra space is nearly always used for additional seating. Given the
history of the air transport industry to date, the key change that the
A380 will bring to travellers is not extra comfort or lavish in-flight
facilities, but more of the same difference that the 747 made - more seats
and lower seat-mile costs.
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