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To mark the 10th anniversary of the delivery of the first Qantas A380 in September 2008, today’s Throwback Thursday (TBT) features are republished from our November 2008 issue’s indepth coverage of the arrival of the first of the Flying Kangaroo’s super jumbos.
The Qantas A380 era began when the first of its double-decker giants, VH-OQA Nancy-Bird Walton, touched down at Sydney Airport at 9am on September 21.
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Geoff
says:Great article Gerard. Thanks.
Well worth the wait. Congratulations to QANTAS, and the other eleven airlines that co-operated with Airbus to develop and manufacture this magnificent aircraft.
A new dawn for a new ‘Golden Age’ in aviation.
Rod Mahoney
says:Great article Gerard and lots of precious memories… Rod.
Jamie
says:Unfortunately too expensive to operate. Too much weight per seat. Too much airframe per seat. Technology several steps behind the 787.
Bill
says:Anything with more than 2 engines is out of favour with airlines now sadly. Unless ETOPS stops you from using a twin engined aircraft, there was never the market for this aircraft. Its range isn’t really big enough to be a hub buster and I’m surprised Airbus haven’t developed a high density version of the A380 like Boeing did with the 747-400D. It could work well at clogged Asian airports where slots are in high demand.
Jamie
says:Bill, I don’t think it’s the engine count that is the issue. I think it just simply does not have good enough operating costs which have nothing to do with the engine count.
Compare the basic specs of two 787-9s to a single A380. Two 787-9s mean you have 4 engines and approximately the same capacity as a single A380. Both have a similar range. Yet the MTOW of two 787-9 is over 50,000kgs lighter than a single A380 at MTOW.
Hard to compete if you’re carrying an extra 50 tonnes of dead weight.