FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Qantas halts Project Sunrise, A380 upgrades
Old May 6, 2020, 6:43 pm
  #9  
number_6
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Join Date: May 1998
Location: Portland OR Double Emerald (QF and AA), DL PM/MM, Starwood Plat
Posts: 19,589
The A380 has 2 advantages for a post-Covid19 world which could make it more economical to operate. It has a lot of floor space, so could be configured for social distancing (e.g. selling only half of the Y/W/J seats. That could fit the space better than for B787/A330. The second advantage is cargo capacity. Value of cargo on pax flights could rise dramatically, particularly when few flights operate (I've heard that spot cargo rates have more than doubled in the past month). Freight has always been a lucrative business for QF, esp. in California (they still have air cargo buildings at SFO, which they kept even when there were no SFO flights by QF -- silicon valley freight was too lucrative).

So there are some scenarios that would keep the A380 in the fleet ... just not as before.
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