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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1188.PDF
Operators Preparations for introducing the A380 are providing a major challenge for airlines, airports and maintenance companies Working life When the A380 starts earning money for its operators in three years' time, its sheer size will provide unique opportunities for airline marketeers as they take advantage of numerous options such as aircraft configura tion and passenger handling. Virgin Atlantic will be the second airline to inaugurate A380 services after launch cus tomer Singapore Airlines (SIA), and is due to receive the first two of six aircraft on order in July 2006. Two more will follow in 2007 and the final pair in 2008. The A380s will be based at Virgin's London Heathrow hub. Willy Boulter, Virgin's director of commer cial planning and strategy, says the airline has acquired the A380 more for its high capacity at slot-constrained airports and promised low seat/km costs than for its range. "Our initial destinations are likely to be New York Kennedy and Los Angeles," he says, with Washington Dulles and San Francisco following in year two. "We'll also look to Asia in the second year, which has slot-constrained airports such as Tokyo Narita. South Africa is a potential destination in year three," he adds. Boulter says that Virgin's A380s will be equipped with "with upwards of 500 seats". Airbus quotes 555-seats as the standard three-class configuration, but says it expects most A380 operators will install "between 520 and 540 seats". To ensure a smooth introduction of the aircraft, Virgin formed a dedicated A380 pro ject management team a year ago headed by one of its marketing executives, Rachel Upper and Elson. Representatives from every area of main deck the company - airport planning, cabin safety, airbridges commercial, engineering, flight crew, interior willl speed design, operations and product marketing - passenger meet with the project team on a weekly and flow and monthly basis and provide input to Airbus keep turn- through the customer focus groups. around Airbus and suppliers have set aggressive times schedules on decision milestones. "If similar to Airbus had its way we would be choosing those of the the seats now," says Virgin's head of product Boeing 747 Dee Cooper, adding that the final decision on configuration and any innovations that Virgin wants must be made within the next 12 months. While Airbus has promoted various novel ideas for the A380, such as a duty-free shop ping area, library and showers, Virgin's head of design Joe Ferry says that the choice of on-board innovations ultimately "all comes down to money. We only have six aircraft so we have to look at costs and the possibility of sharing them with other customers." Another constraint is that any new products introduced on the A380 must be applicable across the whole Virgin fleet, comprising Airbus A340s and Boeing 747^00s. Ground-handling is another area where the A380 potentially provides a major chal lenge. Airbus has been leading the initiative with the airports and has held regular dia logue with them since it first began serious ultra-large aircraft studies in 1994. The A380 was designed from the start to fit within the much vaunted 80m (262ft) box, which meets airport compatibility recom mendations. Discussions began with certain airports about accommodating the A380 immediately after the first orders were signed. Charles Champion, A380 pro gramme executive vice-president, says the key areas considered were: the effect of the A380's 79.6m wingspan, which is 15m more than the 747, the airports' previously quoted maximum; separation distances between runways and taxiways; the effect of weight on bridges; and the impact on terminals of the A380's passenger capacity and size. A joint team, the A380 Airport Compatibility Group (AACG) - comprising Airbus, Airports Council International, IATA and several airport authorities and reg ulatory authorities - is working together to ensure a smooth service entry. Airbus has surveyed 84 airports worldwide and has identified "likely early airports" for A380 operations. It has prioritised these according to estimates of when they will handle their first A380s. XXVI 20-26 MAY 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
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