Phaze

Not to mention that it went directly from teething issues to ageing issues without the usual stability in between (SQ flight crews' words, not mine).

brentford77

Somewhat selective view. Fantastic aircraft to fly in. Designed for high density major hub to hub routes, most of which can accommodate the aircraft (look at the places EK flies it to). Some airlines (e.g. BA) with capacity constrained airports (e.g. LHR) routinely fill the premium cabins (& econ or 'coach' to those across the pond). In fact BA have gone on record saying they want more but are currently banking on picking up second hand models at lower pricing.

Kagehitokiri

wow, new suites!!

Duke787

I used to think TK would be a potential buyer but after recent events there's no chance. They've been cutting flights left and right.

I'd say there's a very small chance NH could take them if they are pleased with the performance of the ex-Skymark A380s they were forced to take though I think that is highly unlikely.

Maybe some new entity will make a go at it and try to flood a market somewhere. This would never happen but it would be humorous to see a LCC like Spirit take one of these and just run an all Y shuttle between say JFK and LAX or JFK and LHR.

lokijuh

Don't know about Spirit, but have often wondered if it would make sense for cobranded aircraft - for one company to fly the plan and run the cabin on one level of the aircraft and lease out the other level to another airline to run that cabin (assuming resolution of any regulatory issues). Sort of taking codesharing to a new level.

As an example, MEL/SIN sees both SQ/Scoot operating at similar times as well as QF/Jetstar. One wonders if SQ or QF could have downstairs and Scoot or Jetstar could crew and service upstairs. Probably still cheaper just two operate two twin engines such as 777+787 (SQ/Scoot) or 333+787 (QF/JQ), and more profitable with the combined freight capacity of two aircraft.

cowie

But who will get the parachutes when the engines fail?

Joke aside, this is a very interesting idea. The biggest drawback would be operational inflexibility, unless SQ/TZ can find enough routes to make it worthwhile keeping that specially configured fleet going.

Can't wait to see SQ's five-class A380: suites, business, premium economy, economy, and scootnomy.

shuigao

Six. Scoot has scootbiz ("business class") as well.

cowie

Time for a reader's exercise: where would you slot scootbiz in my lineup above?

SQ319

suites, business, premium economy, Scootbiz, economy, and scootnomy

ft101

You must have missed that the program started to show a profit last year, and even with the lower build rate now predicted will continue to do so.

warakorn

After what happened this summer twice at IST, I do not think TK will have the opportunity to expand anymore - for the foreseeable future.

My take on the A380:
The airline industry has changed in the last 15 years. Its not just due to the Dreamliner.
1.
20 years ago it was normal that most (high yielding and longhaul) city pairs were like that:
Origin -> Hub A -> Hub B -> Destination (example HAM-FRA-PEK-XIY or WAW-MUC-SFO-SAN)
The A380 is a good fit to fly from Hub A to Hub B on a longhaul route.
Today most global carrier can now offer Origin -> Hub -> Destination.
(example HAM-HEL-XIY or WAW-LHR-SAN)
Because of these one-stop options, there are not enough (high yield) pax to fill an A380 on FRA-PEK or MUC-SFO.
2.
High yield pax today require frequency - even on longhaul.
On PEK-FRA, CA flies twice a day (an overnight Boeing 787-9; an daytime Boeing 747 or 777).

t325

At first I was thinking that sounds right up Ryanair's alley, even if just short term for a publicity stunt, then I remembered that there's no way the middle of nowhere airports Ryanair flies into could handle an A380.

So, it will have to be Spirit Airlines, and they'll have to have a raunchy marketing campaign focusing on the fact that theirs is bigger than everyone else's.

ft101

A lot of Ryanair destinations are former military airfields, so runway length and strength is not an issue. Making passengers get on a bus, or queue for facilities, is not an issue when they're paying rock bottom prices.

I'm not so sure it will happen, but not due to the airports' capabilities.

flybie

So does this mean they stop flying A380 from JFK to Frankfurt anymore? Or that's the case for October 2017?

Yoshi212

Why would that happen? 5 of the eldest A380s will be return starting in October spread over a period of time which will most likely coincide with deliveries of new aircraft.
The JFK-FRA-SIN route was at one time seasonly changed but have been pretty steadily A380 for awhile now and in my experience having good load factors on the JKF-FRA segments.