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Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

wsj.com

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Re: Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

#11

Post by chulk90 »

Here's some insight:

The recent deregulation worldwide has sparked a huge increase in the # of low-cost airlines, resulting in a spreading out of passenger load across airlines. Therefore, there aren't as many passengers to carry per airline as before, and A380s and even B747s are no longer needed. In fact, all of the U.S. airlines (Delta, United, American, and smaller ones) are either phasing out or parked all of their jumbos.

Side effect:

Because of the # of increase, air traffic has worsened (e.g. delays at airports) and pollution has increased very rapidly.

Re: Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

#12

Post by chulk90 »

chulk90 wrote: post #11

Here's some insight: The recent deregulation worldwide has sparked a huge increase in the # of low-cost airlines, resulting in a spreading out of passenger load across airlines. Therefore, there aren't as many passengers to carry per airline as before, and A380s and even B747s are no longer needed. In fact, all of the U.S. airlines (Delta, United, American, and smaller ones) are either phasing out or parked all of th…

737s and 320s are really popular for short-range flights, while 777s and 330s are the go-to choices for long-range flights.

Re: Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

#14

Post by goodcanadian »

rtb wrote: post #6
kozak wrote: post #2

So what are the reasons (in short)? The article is behind a paywall.

> The A380’s size has become its disadvantage as airlines prefer relatively smaller planes such as the Airbus A350 and rival Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner that can fly nonstop to their ultimate destinations, bypassing major hubs such as London Heathrow and Singapore’s Changi Airport. (Range seems odd to me as a factor, as Wikipedia thinks the Dreamliner and the A380 have the same max range.)

The range is important because historically, small jets had comparatively short ranges. The pattern used to be to use small jets as feeders to major hubs. The large jets would fly between the major hubs. Now, with small jets having greater range, you can send flights direct bypassing the major hub. There is not enough traffic on the route to warrant a large jet, however, so smaller jets with the same range are preferred.

Re: Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

#15

Post by teh_klev »

cordite wrote: post #7
strictnein wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Click "web" under the article link. Click first link in Google results.

Oh wow! I never noticed that!

archive.is is also your friend when that doesn't work:

http://archive.is/yVKvE

Re: Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

#16

Post by BorgHunter »

chulk90 wrote: post #11

Here's some insight: The recent deregulation worldwide has sparked a huge increase in the # of low-cost airlines, resulting in a spreading out of passenger load across airlines. Therefore, there aren't as many passengers to carry per airline as before, and A380s and even B747s are no longer needed. In fact, all of the U.S. airlines (Delta, United, American, and smaller ones) are either phasing out or parked all of th…

> In fact, all of the U.S. airlines (Delta, United, American, and smaller ones) either sold or parked all of their jumbos.

This is not true quite yet, although it will be true in a couple years. United and Delta still operate a handful of 747s on their densest routes, but they're in the process of being phased out. Here are a couple flights:

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL59/history/20160914/1...

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL278/history/20160914/...

Re: Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

#18

Post by ChrisBland »

kozak wrote: post #2

So what are the reasons (in short)? The article is behind a paywall.

General Aviation Pilot here - one thing they also leave out is the relaxation on the rules for overwater flight with 2 engines. Prior to the change, it was harder to fly oceanic routes as you had to fly way north to ensure that your nearest airport in case of engine loss was no more than X distance away. With the changes in reliability for engines, they have relaxed that rule which has made 2 engine flights (notable for US => Europe) more profitable as 2 engines flights consume way less fuel than 4 engines flights

Re: Singapore Airlines Won’t Extend Lease on First Airbus A380 Jet

#20

Post by Analemma_ »

tetrep wrote: post #9

tl;dr The plane is too big (600 seats) and airlines are concerned that it is/would be too hard to fill all the seats. I was hoping for some interesting manufacturing quirks or something :/

I think it's still interesting, because (20 years ago) Airbus and Boeing made two very different bets on what air travel would look like in the future. Boeing thought it would be mostly P2P and built the 787; Airbus thought it would be hub-and-spoke and so built the A380. It's going to take a decade or more for this to play out, but this might be the first sign that Boeing was right and Airbus was wrong.
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