Geordie405

I also think it's a question of freight capacity as well. From what I gather the 747 and the 777 can carry considerably more freight / cargo than a 380.

As for the comment about the 777 visiting Las Vegas, the LGW services are 777 operated and I know that the LHR service, although scheduled for a 747, has operated with a 777 on occasion due to last minute aircraft swaps.

gliderpilot

Not quite true. All depends on whether the aircraft is filled or not. A fully filled A380 has a pretty good cost/pax/mile. The latest twins are better but certainly nowehere near twice as twice as good. What they give you is greater flexibility to lower the impact of reduced demand (less additional seats to fill and if you can't, more cargo capacity) and also to redeploy on different routes. A380s are very inflexible in that regard but are great for when you have limited slots that don't allow you to put two twins on a particular route (e.g at LHR).

Bear96

Lots and lots more seats. They were already planning to be phased out BEFORE Covid because of that. Covid just accelerated it. By the time air travel gets back to 2019 levels they would have been mostly retired anyway.

Believe me, I am not happy about this; it is a lovely plane from a passenger PoV. But even in 2019 its economics barely made sense on most routes, as airlines were realizing, for reasons others have pointed out between this post and yours.

ETA (emphasis added):

Quote:

A fully filled A380 has a pretty good cost/pax/mile.

The bolded is precisely the problem in the Covid and immediate post-Covid world. It was even the problem pre-Covid.

crazyarmadillo

Start of phase 1 (phased approach to reopening) on Saturday for NV! Don't know when BA well be back, but at least it's a start.

Still hoping that the a380 with BA makes an appearance, fingers crossed sometime next year.

FlyerTalker7654

Would be really interested to see how the restaurants have been coping. Our local Thai in Henderson had an hour wait for pick up last Saturday!!

Depending on how the UK plays out, I can't see how BA will be able to sustain 1 daily flight let alone 2. From speaking to friends in London, most are worried about their jobs, 2 are just nervous to actually fly in the current situation, and 3 are planning to take their families somewhere in the UK..

Like I said yesterday, the economy back home (in London) will dictate if we get back to 1 or 2 flights a day.

gengar

I don't see how the A380 works at all for BA LHR-LAS - way too many F/J seats. Selfishly, I do hope they keep F on the route even if I'm not flying to London that much anymore (and I've never flown the A380, so that'd be fun!), but I just don't think it makes sense financially.

Also, note that the A380 isn't great on arrival in LAS since it would have to park at Concourse D as there are no A380-capable gates at T3/E, so there's a very long walk (under the tarmac, adjacent to the tram - but there is no tram on that side) to T3 for CBP. This also greatly increases wait times for those checking bags. (The VS flight occasionally docks at D, so I've had to experience this firsthand.)

Restaurants have been absolutely destroyed here. A huge part of the problem is that many tourists go to off-Strip restaurants (especially visitors driving from CA and have a car anyway) so the Strip closure has been particularly devastating to this area.

IME the reason there are long waits is that few restaurants have remained open, so they're the only options. They're also typically operating with as few staff (including kitchen) as possible so the capacity is limited. One of my regular spots in Henderson had 10+ people waiting in line for pickup recently (none of them doing a particularly good job of practicing social distancing...) but the manager has told me they are doing just 20% of normal business and they are losing money.

Conventions are certainly huge business in Vegas especially as they are very high margin, but Vegas has diversified and become mainstream enough that it attracts visitors for all its key hospitality components and casino properties need the revenue from all those components in order to sustain profitability. My understanding (just from talking to FAs) is that this is primarily a leisure route, even in F, and that's also why the 744 works so well - for the economy lift.

Another poster mentioned visitors not scrambling to go to Vegas because of the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic; while that's certainly true with 33+ million people in the US joining the unemployment ranks in recent weeks, there are also millions of people who have been forced home who are itching to get out and do something. Our country has largely been shut down for around two months despite that many areas have not had significant impacts (to put it in perspective, even California has contiguous counties bigger than Wales that don't have a single confirmed case), so while I'm sure many people will be wary of traveling / social gatherings, I think a lot of others are going to jump at any opportunity to get back towards normalcy.

skicowboys

We love going to LAS, Henderson really, but hardly anyone here in the UK knows where that is, we love the old locals places there. 2 trips already cancelled and i agree that the a swap to a smaller plane is the most likely outcome and tbh that's ok although i too would not like a 777 as they are imo the worst BA has to offer (in CW) but we would just be glad to go. The strip part of Vegas may well get the attitude adjustment it needs (car parking, destination charges etc.) with what is bound to be low occupancy and the resultant glut of hotel rooms at least for the next year or so. Even when Vegas does get going there won't be table games etc. for the foreseeable future so social distancing can be adhered to, although with 30m plus visitors per annum social distancing will be hard everywhere.

crazyarmadillo

The ba cw 777 is certainly our least favorite as well. When they all get the new seats, or if now, it may be different.

Have always flowm from t5 vs lgw so never have done a 777 to Vegas, thankfully.

OT - Good choice re Henderson btw. You should also give the northwest and west (Las Vegas) a go if you like Henderson.

FlyerTalker7654

See on ba.com there is the 747 daily from LHR and 3 x a week 777 from LGW. Guess no A380?

Airprox

Haha, you'll be very lucky to see an A380 flying to anywhere for a long time, and certainly not LAS.

gw76

But A380 was only ever for CES tech convention

nufnuf77

Does that mean you'll make a pilgrimage to t3?

Tobias-UK

T3 may not be back open by then! It won’t make any difference for me, I actually booked on the BA268.

surryson

the 380 was only planned for a couple of weeks in Jan2021