Airbus is in talks to sell new A380 superjumbo planes to British Airways this year after securing a program-saving deal from Emirates, according to people familiar with the matter.
The U.K. carrier, which currently has a dozen A380s in its fleet, had said in the past that it was looking for six to seven second-hand A380s.
Now it’s considering taking a larger number of new ones, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
Airbus’s outgoing head of sales, John Leahy, said on Bloomberg Television Friday he was confident the European planemaker would secure one more A380 order this year. That customer is British Airways, the people said. Airbus and BA parent IAG both declined to comment.
British Airways is interested in the superjumbo because of the jet’s ability to maximize the number of passengers per flight at its London Heathrow hub, which is running close to capacity limits.
The carrier’s main focus is on North Atlantic routes that are among the world’s busiest long-haul services, and it ranks as the number one operator of Boeing's 747 jumbo, the second-biggest passenger plane after the A380.
BA is examining a deal for new planes after concluding that refurbishing used examples of the Airbus behemoth for its own needs would be too expensive, one of the people said. The carrier’s superjumbos are fitted out in a four-class configuration featuring 469 seats, according to its website.
IAG Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh has been mulling the business case for second-hand A380s for as least two years, with planes becoming available as the oldest ones come off lease from Singapore Airlines after a decade of service. Walsh also ran the rule over six younger aircraft deemed surplus to requirements at Malaysia Airlines.
An order for new double-deckers from IAG would help vindicate Airbus’s efforts to save the A380, which Leahy said Monday might be scrapped after failing to attract a buyer for more than two years. That was before Emirates announced its deal for as many as 36 planes worth US$16 billion.
While Airbus says that order will keep the A380 production line going for more than a decade, it’s still looking at slashing build rates to just six annually from 12 this year. Follow-on orders from carriers such as British Airways are therefore still vital in lifting the annual tally to a level where the manufacturer can break even on each plane.
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If oil prices hadn't come down a few years ago I think we would have definitely seen BA retiring the 747's quicker.
But with current oil prices and no repayments these beautiful beasts have found they curry favour again. I commute once a week from LHR-NYC and always try and choose a flight operated by a refurbished 747. I find it far more comfortable even than the newer 787's that serve Newark airport.
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Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
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I (quickly) looked at the IAG Capital Markets Day slidepack from November 2017. Fuel / Fuel efficiency isnt the highest margin contributor but wil improve as new aircraft delivered. Ahead of fuel are Staff costs and Suppliers.
Big focus on squeezing suppliers in their 5 year plan & potential extending the life of airframes, or acquiring 2nd hand, ahead of new lease commitments.
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21 Jan 2016
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Airbus should be looking at offering ex-leased or second hand A380 refurbish and upgraded them to A380Plus and market them to those airlines who wanted to operate A380's a cheaper lease or purchase price.
If Airbus did this, then airlines like BA could replace aging B747's with refurbished and upgraded A380's on high density routes like LHR/NYC
If the auto industry can offer new and refurbished used vehicles, Airbus can with its is A380's.
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While oil prices have increased they are NOWHERE near the highs of six or seven years ago when they were at crazy prices and airlines were desperate to retire their gas guzzlers.
Frequency is king on the LHR - USA routes. And the demand for premium seats verus economy seats is much higher given BA's much stronger corporate presence on those routes (and thanks to the Joint Service Agreement they have with AA).Between AA and BA they pretty much offer a shuttle service between LHR and JFK with at least ten flights per day spaced out pretty much every hour. The other US routes that have multiple daily destinations tend to have them also spaced out through the day, typically with a midday-ish and late afternoon departure.
And the 787 has enabled BA to launch point to point flights to cities that have always had huge amounts of transfer traffic but would not have been viable in its own right on a 777/747 - think Austin, New Orleans, Nashville. This has obviously had a knock on effect to say LHR-IAH or LHR-DFW where most of these passengers would have previously transited.
It's also worth noting that in terms of First/Business Class seats the refurbished 747's that BA tends to use on the transatlantic routes more or less have the same capacity as the A380. The 747 has 14F (same as A380) and a whopping 86J (the A380 has 97). Yet it only has 145 seats in economy with given the frequencies pretty much fits demand.
The north American routes it currently uses its A380's on have tended to have a seasonal service (except LAX/SFO). MIA, YVR, BOS, IAD have all had the A380 sporadically and it serves those cities well during periods of high Y class demand (as does QF do to HKG with their A380).
The other routes where BA uses the 380's (HKG/SIN/JNB) the situation is different. These are routes where capacity is more important than timing/frequency. Flights to these destinations have always been just a couple hours apart of each other in the evening and at some points (HKG and JNB) there were three longhaul 747's/777's departing within a four or five hour window.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Nov 2015
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A bit of history here...Apologies if I’m repeating earlier threads. Dunno have the time to read everything.
The A380’s fuelled the long haul capacity increase. Emirates, who leased their A380’s, etc leached on that tit.
.So as was always going to happen, Boeing etc decided to better Airbus. Which is where we are now. More efficient long haul . Overfly the old hubs. A cost/fare trade-off between pax, freight and endurance.
Austin
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26 Jun 2015
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But I am really now worried why BA (a wonderful Airline) wants to buy more 380's for which routes where are the 400/500 passengers to come from and AB380 with four engines whether Rolls or GE it burns dollars. Then one more thing with 500 passengers payload comes down. so Cargo will suffer and stand by passengers will be going back home forgetting the holiday.
passenger comfort is very little and lower than even A330/340/350
may be only the money having business class or premium Economy passengers sleeping in the upper deck will like..
18 Mar 2016
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The last couple of times I travelled on them, they were so
beat up and riddled with problems.
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