florens

Stumbled upon this article:

https://aviationanalyst.co.uk/2019/0...-gulf-carrier/

Sad news, especially because of the bar! Their A380s were delivered between 2014 and 2018 so I would expect them to go between 2024 and 2028.

The plan is to replace them by 777X. This probably means F will go, what do you think?

celtic_warrior

A huge shame IMO. I loved the bar on the A380.. When these go Al Safwa will only be for regional Fthen?

Dr. HFH

A shame,yes, but consistent with his longtime plan which resulted in the QSuites. I love the onboard bar.

lost_in_translation

As a reminder, this is a quote from AAB so the timeline should clearly be taken with a pinch of salt! I would think the priority should be retiring the A340s which make absolutely no sense from an economic perspective.

The issue with the QR A380s seems to be QR isn't able to fill the Y cabin and especially so since the blockade, so QR should take out the Upper Deck Y and possibly F too to create a more J-heavy configuration and then refit them with Qsuites. The whole point of the connector model that QR and EK use is to bunch up departures in connecting banks in the morning and evening to make sure there are as many short layovers as possible, which is exactly why the A380 is a good aircraft for that model. Instead, QR e.g. currently operates 2 LHR flights and 1 LGW flight within 55 minutes of each other in an afternoon, then another 2 LHR flights plus an LGW in a 25 minute window in an evening, with a similar story for early morning departures too. This isn't LHR-NYC, most of those are connecting passengers so it really doesn't make sense for QR to offer more frequency rather than being all A380 to LHR. I also really don't get CAN (there must be some seriously valuable cargo on that route or the local Chinese government is paying QR / some sort of dodgy deal is going on) as I haven't been on an A380 to CAN with enough passengers to even fill a 787 yet. I get the impression QR could make much better use of the A380s they have if they wanted to.

IAN-UK

In many areas, but particularly in air transport, it's not difficult to paint happiness over any strategy. Remember the enthusiasm and rosy predictions which greeted the (bonkers, doomed to failure) Utapao venture.

Of course it's just as easy to spread doom and gloom across a scenario

Truth is the A380 hasn't been quite the success that Airbus hoped for. It has worked in some cases for some carriers, but it would seem that for QR it hasn't. Scheduling it on the airline's rather awkward network can't have been easy. The "blockade" won't have made things any easier.

Once financial commitments have been sorted out it probably makes sense to take the opportunity to cut capacity by getting rid of the white elephants, replacing some of them with equipment which better matches demand.

dsf

Au contraire?

IAN-UK

I bet you heard my duh! all the way from Jakarta

warakorn

An A380, which is just filled at 33% capacity, is not earning too much money.

makrom

Putting it very mildly. The hub spoke model required to fill these fatties might not be dying, but it is certainly decaying. And even if full loads could be achieved, it would still fail to leverage an economy of scales effect as it has a higher CASM than several smaller models. Add to that the exorbitant development costs vs the low sales numers, and you got yourself one gigantic mess. The only feasible use case is for slot constrained airports, but since it requires special treatment like dedicated gates and super category wake turbulence spacing, it cannot even shine in that area.
As a pax I love it, but for airlines it is almost always an inferior choice. As long as pax aren't willing to pay a markup equivalent to the CASM difference, there is basically no business case for it.

synd

another nail in the coffin for the A380. Pity its my favorite plane to fly, from the Bar, to the spacious bathroom in F, I like it over any other AC.

jerrythegreat12

I heard the DOH-CAN route are filled with Africans that are doing trades in CAN, flying CAN-DOH-Africa frequently with those traders.

lost_in_translation

I think that's the idea and maybe they are at some times of year, but I've yet to see it!

jerrythegreat12

I think this route is more likely to be as a seasonal route, like the DOH-AKL route. They can swap a 777/787 onto this route during the low season, and 388 on the peak season.

makrom

lifeonthego_k

Damn it! Another airline that is dumping the A380. It's sad but that's how the aviation world is developing. Funnily enough, over the years I've flown in all of QR's aircraft types in Y, J and F, barring J in the A380 (and F in their old A340-600). I know it's almost identical to the J found in the B787 and A350 (non-Qsuite version) but still, I would like to fly it!