Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

smh.com.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 251 posts

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#141

Post by benjaminwootton »

herpderperator wrote: post #21

I just got back from a road trip where I visited this boneyard (among other things) in the Mojave Desert.[0][1][2] The airport/planes are all fenced in, but you can still go up to the fence and see them up close. Pretty wild to see so many planes in one place. [0] https://www.dropbox.com/s/wjkmpacv7yvpur5/PXL_20230411_00382... [1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/2pgdlmn7z9ej0rc/PXL_20230411_00433... [2] https://www.dropbox…

This looks great. We stumbled on a similar one in France for fighter jets and old planes and spent a full day there. Thanks for the reccomendation.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#142

Post by switch007 »

nerdbert wrote: post #58
badcppdev wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can tell demand is high because ticket prices are very high. Airlines have opted and are opting to fly fewer planes with higher ticket prices. It's a price over volume optimisation that seems to be in fashion in many industry segments. [0] I will note that some airlines have been affected very badly by issues with rebuilding staffing in ancillary services like luggage and airport security. That uncertainty I thin…

Ticket prices are high because demand in the front of the plane is low. Economy class tickets have to go up a lot to make up for empty first and business seats.

Ticket prices are high because we’re paying for the revenue loss during the pandemic, still. And that people are willing to pay the prices obviously.

(And a bit of “everyone else is raising prices” and greed, naturally)

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#143

Post by anaganisk »

Andys wrote: post #54
rootusrootus wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The A380 is pretty smooth, but I found that the way it cruises is not great for me. It tends to surge and glide in a way that prevents me from actually falling asleep, more so than on other smaller planes like a 787. While the 787 might not be as silky smooth taking off and landing, I prefer it for the long term comfort that matters for most of the flight.

Oh, I thought it was just me! All the Airbus planes have horrible autopilots that gradually rise and fall, in a barely noticeable way. I found myself feeling irritated and wished the source code was opensource so I could have a look at it.

Are you telling us this as a pilot or a coder? Calling it's autopilot is horrible is a lot of stretch.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#144

Post by benjaminwootton »

akhayam wrote: post #79

I miss flying A380s--such a pleasure. Other airlines (I am talking to you, Emirates): you bring it back too!

Emirates never stopped flying A380s, at least between London, Dubai and Thailand which I’ve done regularly since 2020.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#145

Post by anaganisk »

anonu wrote: post #122

Wouldn't it have been cheaper to fly them once a week, empty, for a few hours to keep them air worthy?

You are paying a lot higher price to store them, fuel them, pilots and support crew. Wearing out parts(landing gear etc).

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#146

Post by petesergeant »

noahtallen wrote: post #12
InTheArena wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The A380 was Airbus trying to out-American the Americans, by being the biggest plane, and by betting big on mega-hubs like Dubai, Heathrow, and LAX. There was a great paper that argued that Airbus could only do so because the risk of the decision was mitigated by government launch aid. Airbus's view of the market was wrong, and instead, we have the rise of more city pairs. Not small cities certainly - but right now,…

> Airbus walked away from what made them successful to go after the "we are the biggest" crown... But they have direct competitors for these types of routes too. A350, A321-XLR, the various neo planes. All of which are as good as Boeing’s options! (And even some which Boeing doesn’t have, like the A220.) As an outsider, it seems like Airbus is in a fantastic spot, at least until Boeing starts shipping the 777X and wo…

> at least until Boeing starts shipping the 777X

Is that expected to provide a serious upgrade over the A350-1000?

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#147

Post by etiennemarcel »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #141
herpderperator wrote: post #21

I just got back from a road trip where I visited this boneyard (among other things) in the Mojave Desert.[0][1][2] The airport/planes are all fenced in, but you can still go up to the fence and see them up close. Pretty wild to see so many planes in one place. [0] https://www.dropbox.com/s/wjkmpacv7yvpur5/PXL_20230411_00382... [1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/2pgdlmn7z9ej0rc/PXL_20230411_00433... [2] https://www.dropbox…

This looks great. We stumbled on a similar one in France for fighter jets and old planes and spent a full day there. Thanks for the reccomendation.

By any chance do you remember where it was? Thanks

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#148

Post by btilly »

wahern wrote: post #91
MichaelZuo wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The latest and greatest engines are not that far from the theoretical thermodynamic efficiency limit. So future designs are running into the hard part of the asymptote. I doubt airlines are actually interested in committing tens of billions of capital, today, to get a dozen % improvement in fuel efficiency a decade from now. And why would a private investor take such a huge risk without guarantees of making it back s…

Sure, it's obviously a matter of diminishing returns and opportunity cost. But the re-engine for the A380 was basically a rote, low-risk, B-team exercise for Rolls Royce. All they had to do was tweak their existing generation stuff. The program was already well underway, and they still dropped it; they all but explicitly said the reason was, "meh, we lost interest". Something seems to have changed. Putting my cynical…

Starship launches tomorrow.

There is a non-trivial chance that point to point suborbital flights totally disrupt the airline industry. Hong Kong to Los Angeles in 30 minutes for the price of a first class ticket is pretty hard to argue with.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#149

Post by benjaminwootton »

etiennemarcel wrote: post #147
benjaminwootton wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks great. We stumbled on a similar one in France for fighter jets and old planes and spent a full day there. Thanks for the reccomendation.

By any chance do you remember where it was? Thanks

Found it - https://www.chateau-savigny.com

There’s a video on their home page but it doesn’t really do the plane section justice - https://youtu.be/ms9Plfn_2mI

Pick up a couple of bottles of the Red Wine too if you ever visit!

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#150

Post by akhayam »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #144
akhayam wrote: post #79

I miss flying A380s--such a pleasure. Other airlines (I am talking to you, Emirates): you bring it back too!

Emirates never stopped flying A380s, at least between London, Dubai and Thailand which I’ve done regularly since 2020.

You are so lucky! I just searched an aviation site and seems like the SFODXB is back on A380 as well…. Yaaay!

From that page: “ In 2023, the Emirates A380 is at this point scheduled to operate flights to 44 destinations in almost 30 countries. While a handful of the routes are seasonal, the vast majority are year-round. The countries with the most Emirates A380 routes in 2023 include the United States (5 destinations) and Australia (4 destinations).”

Post reply on HN