A380 - Master Thread

[CarbonMan]

Airbus CEO says company 'screwed up' on A380 wing cracks

(AFP) - Airbus chief executive Thomas Enders vowed on Monday that the company will quickly fix tiny cracks detected on the wings of its flagship A380 super jumbo, admitting 'we screwed that up'.

Mr Enders said he hoped that the wing problem as well as troubles on some of the A380's Rolls Royce engines which had been detected earlier, will not affect the European aircraft maker's credibility.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking...ry_766116.html

[InSaneSleepyHO]

HKG is now also all upper deck business class or is it temp?

[StarG]

Seems like HKG is all business upper deck starting 03 March.

[itami]

Seems like HKG is all business upper deck starting 03 March.

I thought HKG had the all-biz upp deck (A38E) since 19 Feb, with the exception of 27, 28 Feb.

CDG is also A38E since 16 Feb.

[SQ228]

I also think when MEL gets back A380 services from March 24, it will be the A38E. I've been into Y seat selection screens on a couple of days in May and June and none of them had upper deck cabins.

Of course, this could just be because they don't yet know which variant they will assign and don't want anyone selecting upper until they do.

Since their plan is to return to the old SQ 227/8 pairing with the A380, the flight out of SIN will leave a few minutes before the inbound plane returns, so they will need more than one A380 in effect to service MEL. At least this plan will deliver capacity where it's needed most, though.

[SQKevin]

9V-SKQ is being prepared for delivery. We can expect its delivery to be this week or next week.

[SQ228]

Right on time for its scheduled return to MEL

[SMK77]

What routes are rumored to get upgauged to the Whalejet?

SIN-ICN-SFO
SIN-HKG-SFO
SIN-AKL

[SilverChris]

What routes are rumored to get upgauged to the Whalejet?

SIN-ICN-SFO
SIN-HKG-SFO
SIN-AKL

AKL was rumored to get it a long time ago, IIRC

[SQ228]

AKL was rumored to get it a long time ago, IIRC

Yeah, I think the idea floating about was that they would reduce the 12 weekly flights with 777s to one daily A380 flight.

I suppose the great risk with that plan is it removes one of the two timings and severs a lot of connections at SIN for AKL travellers. Outbound passengers would be limited to post-9pm connections or forced to stay overnight in SIN. Those returning home and connecting from early arrivals into SIN would have a long wait until their flight home.

Would NZ be able to provide codeshares to still allow for a second daily timing perhaps?

[eriond]

What routes are rumored to get upgauged to the Whalejet?

SIN-ICN-SFO
SIN-HKG-SFO
SIN-AKL

and LHR too, no?

[SilverChris]

and LHR too, no?

I think SMK77 was referring to destinations not yet served by the A380

[SQueeze]

I think SMK77 was referring to destinations not yet served by the A380

There is still a possibility for LHR's 3rd flight to be upgauged, perhaps MEL's 2nd too.

[SQ228]

There is still a possibility for LHR's 3rd flight to be upgauged, perhaps MEL's 2nd too.

I wonder whether they would put a second A380 on 217/218 or 237/238. I know SQ217 would eventually return loadings that would fill an A380 as there's rarely an empty seat on that flight, but I'm not sure if SQ218 has the demand needed.

If they use SQ237/238 then they have two A380s heading from SIN - MEL within 3 hours of each other overnight, and only the 77W for the day flight which picks up connections from all arrivals into SIN in the early morning including a lot of codeshare passengers from India.

[SQKevin]

9V-SKQ (SQ's 17th A380) has finally been delivered and is heading home.