Airbus to Halt A380 Production

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I've never flown on an A-380 and never expect to.

However, my Sister has on what seems to have become her annual pilgrimage to Australia "to be part of the Grandchildren's lives".

Her only comment on the Qantas A-380 was "the whale" (that was one year; other years have been Virgin and Delta - both 772's).

As for me, another odyssey to Salzburg this year on my "go to"; United (ORD-MUC). The August flights still show 772-Q (Unitedese for Aft facing Business Class) but "hopefully" by then there will be enough 772's retroed to W-Polaris so I have Forward facing "myspace".
 
cirdan said:
On a four engine plane I understand you can keep going, as even if a second one fails you can still continue.
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Yes, you can still continue straight to the closest emergency alternate.  Failure of multiple engines is considered a very serious event.  I'm unaware of any commercial airline/insurer/regulator careless enough to allow an aircraft with two failed engines the option to resume travel to the original destination unimpeded.

GBNorman said:
I've never flown on an A-380 and never expect to...As for me, another odyssey to Salzburg this year on my "go to"; United (ORD-MUC). The August flights still show 772-Q (Unitedese for Aft facing Business Class) but "hopefully" by then there will be enough 772's retroed to W-Polaris so I have Forward facing "myspace".  
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You don't know or care anything about the A380, which is the actual topic of this thread, but you just wanted to remind us about your passive aggressive marriage to United?  OK.
 
Somehow, Advocate, I doubt if I'm the first around here to stand "guilty as charged" for drawing a topic away from its subject.

"Passive/Aggressive" is an interesting comment. Since I only fly three trips a year, this (almost) 78yo does not wish to be "thrown" having to learn new Terminals at (again) "the World's Busiest" and for that matter, destination airports.

So, along with every other goods and service provider I have, United is my "go to".
 
As I transition away from United to Emirates for my annual trips to India due to greater convenience and better fares - one stop from Orlando to Kolkata, I am hoping that I will eventually get to ride the Emirates 380s, though in the immediate future it looks like 777 all the way even on Emirates, since both the Orlando and Kolkata flights are 77Ws at present.

My next trip to Asia though is not to India, but elsewhere - specifically Almaty, Kazakhstan, and it is by Lufthansa from MCO and the aircraft is a venerable 744, so I am looking forward to that.

Back on 380 and Airbus, I wonder how the cancellation of the 380 program will play with Brexit. I am certain that a lot of folks in Filton are not feeling very warm and cozy at present.
 
jis said:
As I transition away from United to Emirates for my annual trips to India due to greater convenience and better fares - one stop from Orlando to Kolkata, I am hoping that I will eventually get to ride the Emirates 380s, though in the immediate future it looks like 777 all the way even on Emirates, since both the Orlando and Kolkata flights are 77Ws at present.

My next trip to Asia though is not to India, but elsewhere - specifically Almaty, Kazakhstan, and it is by Lufthansa from MCO and the aircraft is a venerable 744, so I am looking forward to that.

Back on 380 and Airbus, I wonder how the cancellation of the 380 program will play with Brexit. I am certain that a lot of folks in Filton are not feeling very warm and cozy at present.
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Gosh, Kazakhstan eh? I am still nursing a desire to take the "golden road to Samarkand".  Feeling envious !

Ed. 
 
jis said:
......it looks like 777 all the way even on Emirates, since both the Orlando and Kolkata flights are 77Ws at present.
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Jishnu, you clearly "know more about this stuff" than do I. So with that being said,  I must wonder if these configuration designations, such as Q or W, are manufacturer's or individual airline's designations? I only learned of them from Maureen, my United FA friend, but in your immediate, you note them with regard  to another airline.

"Enquiring mind wants to know".
 
GBNorman said:
Jishnu, you clearly "know more about this stuff" than do I. So with that being said,  I must wonder if these configuration designations, such as Q or W, are manufacturer's or individual airline's designations? I only learned of them from Maureen, my United FA friend, but in your immediate, you note them with regard  to another airline.

"Enquiring mind wants to know".
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AFAIK, the Q is a United internal thing. I have never heard that used by anyone outside United.

The W for 777-300ER is pretty universal in the community. Vanilla 777-300s are apparently called 773. AFAIK, I see these designations first on airliners.net. I am not sure where it originates. I heard the lady from Boeing who was out guide on the VIP tour at the Everett Plant also use the W term. That of course does not mean it originates at Boeing. Afterall they are as much a part of the community and freely use terms invented by others when it suits them.

And BTW, W is not a designation for seat type in the aircraft. It is a designation for an aircraft type. The new Polaris seats used by United is generally referred to as Polaris Pods, to differentiate them from the old ex-Con BF seats and the crummy old ex-United excuses for a BC seat, which United internally likes to call Q apparently.
 
77W is the IATA code for the 777-300ER.  The ICAO code is B77W.

The IATA and ICAO codes generally correspond for Airbus and Boeing types, except for the 787-10 (781 vs B78X), A350-1000 (351 vs A35K), and 737 MAX (7M# vs B3#M) (where # is the variant type, i.e. MAX 7, MAX 8, or MAX 9).  (I've actually seen conflicting reports that the 787-10 is either 78J or 781 in IATA-land, but I can't seem to find an *official* designation anywhere).

The code for the A380-800 is 388/A388, which is the topic of this thread.

I also don't see how there is any particular link between the cancellation of the A380 and Brexit, at least not any moreso than Airbus as a whole and Brexit.  The A380 is but one money-losing model with no orders left.  Its production would have to end with or without Brexit.
 
jis said:
....and the crummy old ex-United excuses for a BC seat, which United internally likes to call Q apparently.
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....sure hope by August they have enough (Unitedese) "W" (Polaris) configured aircraft to assign them ORD-MUC. The link provided by PVD @ post 26 is most interesting.

Also, an interesting but hardly surprising "quirk" when booking Business Class on United. First, United no longer sells First Class, however their "Q" aircraft still have the eight seats.

After selecting a flight but before actually booking it in Business, their site shows a seat map of all seats - including those that were formerly First. Now actually booking and they know your "mileage" standing and they further know that you are "just plain vanilla", those First seats miraculously are unavailable.

Obviously, they're held for the "Elites".
 
I was assigned one of those "first class" pods on a Q configured aircraft on a flight back from London on a paid BC ticket by an agent, when I had to change a flight due to a problem on my side. I had to postpone my entire trip by a day and that involved among other things, a reroute of the return trip from via IAH to via EWR. I am not sure to whom those are made available when. But on a trip back from AMS this coming summer on a paid BC ticket, I was not offered one of those as a choice, so I changed flight to one that has a Polaris Pod equipped 787-10. For context, I am a 1K, 2 million miler.

Again in general 'W' is not a designation of what kind of seats are installed, but of an aircraft type. ;)

787-10s with Polaris Pods are not 'W' aircraft. As it happens United happened to introduce its Polaris Pods on 77Ws, but that does not make every aircraft type that gets Polaris Pod seats 'W's.

But none of this has to do with A380. I would recommend that the Mods hive off this United 777 stuff and place it in a different thread.
 
Trogdor said:
I also don't see how there is any particular link between the cancellation of the A380 and Brexit, at least not any moreso than Airbus as a whole and Brexit.  The A380 is but one money-losing model with no orders left.  Its production would have to end with or without Brexit.
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You're quite right, the A380 was a goner regardless. On the other hand, the end of the A380 will allow Filton to be wrapped up more quickly so as to acccelerate the end of British involvement in Airbus via Brexit. So there is a connection, though not a causative one. 

My husband worked for years at Weybridge back  in the British Aerospace days--it's sad to think that Britain will soon be completely out of the aircraft business. 
 
At least we will see a few ANA A380s ("ANA380"?) entering service in a few months, which I imagine won't be leaving service anytime soon. :)
 
cpotisch said:
At least we will see a few ANA A380s ("ANA380"?) entering service in a few months, which I imagine won't be leaving service anytime soon. :)
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I doubt they'll be retired soon but they might leave NH in short order.  If it remains a three unit fleet then I wouldn't be surprised if they're sold/leased after the 2020 Olympics.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much of a market for secondhand A388's at the moment. Perhaps Airbus will setup a parcel/pilgrimage refurbishment program to wring a bit more money from their sunk development costs.  Places like India, China, and Saudi Arabia could probably find a role for an all-coach charter aircraft at the right price.
 
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Haaj pilgrimage flights come to mind. That is the only reason Air India still maintains a few 747s other than to enhance the prestige of the Prime Minister when he goes to visit someone. But of late even for that they have been using the 777-300ERs.
 
jis said:
At present there is no known commercial flight that requires ETOPS 370, but QANTAS is exploring a couple.
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Interesting. I wonder what the hypothetical max would be for an ETOPS certification? Not from an engineering standpoint, but from a route standpoint. It's hard to imagine there would be very many city pairs that would even require ETOPS 370 from a purely geographic standpoint, customer demand notwithstanding.
 
The A350 is rated for ETOPS 370, giving it the highest rating of any airliner, and I guess giving it the ability to take on any city pair.
 
I guess one would expect a  Wall Street Journal columnist to hold such a position:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbuss-lesson-for-young-socialists-11550619950?shareToken=st35cb96d146ad411c87d3bb85b3c0691d&reflink=article_email_share

Fair Use:

Years ago, when an editor asked me ifBoeing would be around to pay off a 100-year bond it had recently offered, I flippantly replied that 100 years was only two product cycles for the company.

I underestimated the duration of its products. The Boeing 747 first flew in 1969 and a freighter version will continue to be built near Seattle at least through 2022. The Boeing 737, which first flew in 1967, faces an order backlog that extends through 2027. An all-new replacement for the commuter workhorse is unlikely to appear until the 2030s.Which makes all the more anomalous Airbus’s decision to end production of its impressive and giant A380, which has been flying only since 2005
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Additional REPORTING from that "Cathedral of Capitalism" regarding the A-380 debacle. Maybe there is a "konthole in the paywall":

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-airbuss-a380-went-from-wonder-to-blunder-11550599532?shareToken=st8695e7b416e4418884a35f5d67e9023b&reflink=article_email_share

Fair Use

Quote
When Airbus lunched the A380 superjumbo in 2000, it touted the two-deck plane as “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Instead, the world’s largest passenger plane exposed dysfunction inside the European aerospace company and now offers a textbook case of a company misjudging its market and losing big.

Airbus has sunk at least $17 billion into the project yet sold fewer than half of the 750 superjumbo jetliners it promised to deliver by the end of this year. On Thursday Airbus said it would cease producing the 555-seat plane at the end of 2021.

By then, Airbus expects to have sold 251 A380s—one more than its original break-even target, set before production delays added billions of dollars in costs. At its peak, A380 deliveries never reached 5% of annual Airbus deliveries—less than half its target.
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I've had the pleasure of flying in Business Class on an A380 on SQ, and I hope that at some point I will be able to travel on one in F/J on Emirates as well (and indeed on some other airlines).

My experience is that the "upstairs" all-J approach is exceedingly nice (separate boarding door, etc.).  With that being said, I'm also hoping to get a decent sense for how it compares to the 747 (I've only had one flight on one, and that was on DL back in 2017).
 

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