Hello everyone welcome back to Dj's Aviation and another analysis video of mine to be exact.
Have you ever thought about the Airbus A380 and its customers?
If you looked really closely, you'd be able to see that some of the biggest carriers in the world haven't ordered this aircraft.
That being American Airlines, United and Delta.
What do these three airlines have in common?
They are based in America, all three of them.
In today's video, I hope to uncover to you
why American carriers haven't ordered the Airbus A380, so let's get started.
The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger plane on the market today.
With four engines and two levels, it's bound to catch anyone's eye at local airports.
But, that being said, it hasn't caught the eye of some of the biggest carriers in the world.
It has been noted throughout the years since production began of the A380,
that there are multiple reasons why American carriers believe the A380 isn't the right choice.
They are as follows:
preferences, efficiency, airports, capacity, economics, flexibility and the business model.
These are just some of the reasons that have been stated by these airlines.
In this particular video, I'll be going over each of these complaints (if you want to call them that)
from these carriers, and really diving into why they're thinking this way.
We'll begin with the economics.
Overall the economics of the A380, and also the 747-8/747-400,
aren't completely fantastic, and this just isn't a lie.
There are a number of other aircraft on the market which these US airlines believe are better suited to their operations.
Let's take the A340 for example.
If we are talking economics, this A340 is the perfect example.
While an absolutely awesome aircraft it is, the sad fact is it's already out of production.
And when you think about how old it actually is, ceasing production this early is quite odd.
If we take a look at the 767 or Airbus' A300, A320, A310 and A330,
these have actually been flying for a lot longer than the A340.
This is a similar case if we take a look at the A380.
Production rates are in fact decreasing every single month, because it simply isn't fuel-efficient for airlines.
This can be deemed as a challenge for any airline looking at operating an A380.
It is no lie that the twin-engine planes on the market today are more fuel efficient,
and the way US carriers think - it's not necessarily about
how many passengers that they can cram onto the one aircraft.
Otherwise they would have ordered the A380, the 747-8, and be operating these on one hour flights.
While on the topic of challenges, flexibility is another issue that the US carriers hinted at.
If you're giving the likes of Delta, American and United
the choice on what aircraft to operate from let's say, Los Angeles to Sydney,
it's extremely unlikely that they would choose the A380.
Rather, you'd see them opt for let's say for the 777, or maybe in the next decade even the A350ULR.
But if they needed more capacity what would the carrier do exactly? Well an airline like Emirates for example
would likely order more Airbus A380s, or just place extra ones on that flight, because they believe to get the extra capacity,
they can just buy the world's largest passenger plane and put that on that particular route.
But once again the likes of Delta, American and United, nine times out of ten will just add an extra daily service.
More and more airlines across the globe are also following in these carrier's footsteps.
They usually begin serving a destination with a three-times-weekly service.
They'll continue to bump it up until its daily, then it'll be double daily, triple daily and so on.
On routes that already have a huge demand like let's say, Singapore to Melbourne, or New York
to London Heathrow, more and more airlines end up adding double daily or even triple daily services.
Other way[s] airlines combat this is through starting up services
to a growing route that they don't already operate in.
This adds more weekly seats in total for travellers, and also gives them the option to choose multiple carriers.
In saying this though, ANA were quite the rare case.
They saw the A380 as a fantastic way to combat the huge demand for the Japan to Hawaii services,
and have therefore placed an order for three Airbus A380s and an option for a further three.
In regards to flexibility, there's something else that needs mentioning.
This is the training of employees and purchasing of new facilities.
If the US carriers opted for the A380, no doubt new hangars would be needed.
But of course the employees that were already in the business,
would now need to be trained to work on the A380. On top of the price that the airline has paid for this A380,
which is by no means cheap, you're going to have to add therefore on all the operating costs,
and then of course training, which is most likely going to be the last thing they'd be thinking about.
All up, this is going to cost the airline quite a lot. So in terms of flexibility,
the A380 to these carriers just isn't viable.
One issue that doesn't require a huge explanation - and is relatively straightforward - is capacity.
The A380 is a big - and I mean big - plane. It can seat up to 600 people,
depending on the configuration that the airline opts for.
That means in an ideal world, you need to sell all of these seats on every single flight that the A380 will operate on.
Airlines like American, United and Delta believe that this may have been an issue on some routes.
Therefore they believe there was no point in having all those empty seats on every single flight,
when instead you could operate, let's say the A330 or 767 and completely fill them up
on each and every single flight that they operated. If you needed more aircraft to serve a particular route,
you could always order more or lease them.
But in saying that, usually twin-engine jets are a bit cheaper than quad jets, meaning American, United
or Delta could have just ordered double the amount that they may have ordered for the A380, let's say.
This would mean that if one of these 767s went tech or something like that at one of the airports,
they could always bring in, let's say the A330 or another 767, and you wouldn't really feel an effect as a carrier.
There's another key point of difference between those airlines based in America and those in let's say Europe.
If you take a look at British Airways, Emirates and Singapore, who all operate the A380,
how many bases do they have as an airline? And then how many airports do they base the A380 at?
The answer is most likely one. Singapore utilise Singapore Changi, Emirates utilise Dubai,
British Airways utilise Heathrow, and I'm actually also forgetting Qatar and Etihad,
who also utilise Doha and Abu Dhabi only and that's respectively.
But let's take a look at American carriers. While not using the A380, it's the complete opposite.
America is so big that these carriers would prefer operating out of multiple different airports,
rather than restricting all travellers to, let's say, Los Angeles,
and then dumping them all on the one daily A380 flight to London Heathrow.
And mind you this would be the only flight a day that would from America to Heathrow direct.
Through not operating the A380, while British Airways can utilise throughout America the A380,
airlines like Delta, United and American have more of a choice, like the A330s, 767s, 757s, 787s and 777s.
All these aircraft allow different capacity options,
and mean that American, United and Delta can utilise these aircraft from different airports all across America.
Following on from that idea that American carriers can space out their flights,
if they were to have the A380 delivered, they would need to alter airports across the entire country.
A similar situation is unfolding right now at Honolulu in anticipation for the ANA Airbus A380 flights from Tokyo.
The airport was not capable of actually fitting an A380 at its gates,
and now is spending a lot of money, and I mean a lot of money to fix it and prepare it.
With so many hubs at smaller airports,
it could certainly be argued that these airports simply were not made to fit the A380.
On the other hand, airports like Los Angeles, with numerous A380 services, is one of the few.
The A380s are most useful at congested international airports,
where there are a vast number of passengers and limited slot availability.
These airlines in America, while operating through congested airports,
have more of an opportunity to branch out and add more services than let's say at London Heathrow.
This all ties in with the idea that purchasing an A380 can heavily depend on the airport it'll actually operate from.
So all up, there are quite a few reasons why the US carriers have decided to not opt for the Airbus A380.
I hope this video was not only a little bit interesting and enjoyable,
but also you possibly have learned something from this as well.
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you enjoyed the video feel free to give it a thumbs up. I look forward to seeing you all in my next one.
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