Airbus Launches 800 Passenger Jumbo Jet

voma writes "Airbus, the world's largest planemaker, will unveil its A380, a $16 billion wager that airlines will order giant aircraft to ferry passengers between major airports over the next 20 years. The double-decker A380 plane has a wing span of 80 meters (262 feet), almost the length of an American football field. It's 73 meters long and weighs as much as 569 tons (1.2 million pounds) when fully loaded for takeoff. It will have a range of 8,000 nautical miles."

Comments

Some stats for the interested...

[Richard_at_work]

A A380-800 carrying 550 passengers costs $270million.
A 747-400 carrying 436 passangers costs $215million.
Both work out at roughly $0.5million per passenger.
The Airbus requires the same length runway to takeoff and land, but it requires wider runways. Most airports can take the A380 currently, with only some having to expand runways or taxiways to fit.

The 747-400 has a range of 14,205km, with a max fuel capacity of 63,700gallons.
The A380-800 has a range of 15,100km, with a max fuel capacity of 81,900gallons.

That gives the 747-400 a rate of 0.2km/g.
And the A380 a rate of 0.18km/g.

Or, based on passenger numbers, the 747-400 has a rate of 1.02 gallons of fuel per 100km per passenger. The A380 has a rate of 0.9 gallons of fuel per 100km per passenger. (work all that out myself, phew). This gives the Airbus a more efficient fuel cost when carrying a full passenger load.

The A380 will be used mainly on the longhaul hub routes, such as LA to Hongkong, London to Hongkong, London to Sydney, London to New York, New York to Hongkong etc. You will see it on other routes tho, its just as good for those.

So far Airbus have sold 139 A380-800 aircraft, half of what it needs to break even.

Re:Wings

[Eunuchswear]

Finally, Germany, France and Italy (of the countries that spring to mind) all recognise that their economies lose far too many days to unnecessary strikes,

The French economy, being effectively a union free zone, loses almost no days to strikes, necessary or not.

(There are a few days lost a year in the civil service, which is somewhat unionised.)

Some figures:

1. Days lost to strikes, 2000:
   

   Switzerland 0.38
   Japan 0.55
   Germany 1.41
   France 8.04
   UK 11.07
   Netherlands 15.31
   USA 19.04

   Working days lost per 1,000 inhabitants per year.

2. Unionisation:

   Germany 30%
   UK 29%
   USA 13%
   France 9%

   Table 1. Trade union density, Europe, Japan and USA

3. Unionisation in the private sector in France:

   State & local govt, public hospitals: 15.1%
   Nationalised companies, social security: 15.6%
   Private companies: 5.2%

   "myths & realities of unionisation in France" (in French, pdf