The Cranky Flier » A380

Onboard the Qantas A380 vs the Emirates A380

CF — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:52:09 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, the Qantas A380 came through LAX yesterday on its first scheduled flight between Australia and the US. Regular readers know that I spent time on the Emirates A380 in August, so now it’s time for a battle royale. Let’s compare the Emirates and Qantas products.

First, a little background. While I took the flight with Emirates in August, I ended up not flying with Qantas this time. Instead, I opted for the static display where I spent about an hour checking out the product on the ground. My friend Paul was down for this flight as well, so we both had a chance to kick the tires on both flights. If you really care about the flight itself, I’ve got someone who took it working on a guest post. You can also go check out Today in the Sky where Ben Mutzabaugh has posted some of his pictures. I spoke to Ben for awhile after the flight, and it sounds like the low fly-by of San Francisco was really excellent. Hopefully I’ll have more for you on that soon. But let’s get back to the plane itself.

Economy Class
I figured I’d start in coach since that’s where most of us will end up if we fly this plane. Qantas has coach on the last 3/4 of the lower deck while Emirates has the entire lower deck filled. The seat pitch is one inch less than it is on Emirates, and you can feel it. It was already tight, but when the person in front of me reclined, it really got worse. I didn’t explore the inflight entertainment much, but it appeared to be just as good as Emirates for my purposes.

The big differentiator for Qantas (besides the insignificant fact that each of the three coach cabins had different color fabric) was the “foot net.” I’ve never seen one of these before, but it was effectively an attempt to install a footrest in coach without having it take up any space. The picture at right is a bit tough to decipher, but it’s the best I could do. This net has a hard front to it that sits against the bottom of the seat in front. When you kick it with your foot, it opens up a net that you can put your feet in to rest. With shoes on, it wasn’t very comfortable because it seemed too small. But with shoes off, I can imagine it actually being a nice way to elevate your feet a little and get some relief.

Other than that, the only other thing of note in coach was that there are four snack bars stationed throughout the airplane where they’ll have pre-packaged goodies for people to pick up whenever they’d like. The only (very big) concern for me in coach was legroom, but otherwise, it seemed like a strong product.

Premium Economy
I’ll keep this one short because Emirates doesn’t have a Premium Economy for comparison. On this plane, Qantas puts this at the very back of the upper deck in a small, intimate cabin. The seats in the emergency exit row have some incredible legroom, so definitely grab those if you can. In general, it seemed to be a decent premium economy seat, but I had problems making the legrests fit comfortably. It was too short for me, and I am not a tall person. Still, considering the tight pitch in economy, it would probably be worth upgrading for a few hundred dollars more.

Business Class
Business Class takes up the rest of the upper deck. My understanding is that it’s the same seat that Qantas uses as an angled lie-flat seat on its other aircraft, but on the A380 it goes fully flat, as you can see at left. The seat was comfortable, and it felt very private folding back into the shell. In fact, the cabin had a very different feel than on Emirates.

Emirates had very large monuments surrounding the seats – minibars and walls all over. On Qantas it was all about the seat with the individual shells. It seemed more open than on Emirates, yet for some reason it seemed a bit more private as well. It’s hard to explain, I suppose. But if you’re traveling alone, the Emirates setup is certainly superior because you can sit alone. On Qantas, you’ll have a seatmate no matter what. There were certainly merits to both.

First Class
Qantas puts First Class downstairs in the front, unlike Emirates which puts it upstairs. The Qantas suite is really nothing like the Emirates one at all. Emirates has built their seat around the idea of being completely private and separate from the rest of the world. Qantas hasn’t followed this model, and has left it somewhat open instead.

I wrote about the seat when I saw it at NBTA over the summer, but I knew I couldn’t really decide how it would work until I saw it on a plane. I can now say that if you sit on the sides, it still seems quite good. But if you’re in one of the seats down the middle, it doesn’t really afford enough privacy.

The reason it works on the side is because the seat is oriented to angle toward the window. So you’re kept away from other people unless you really want to see them (you can invite them over to have dinner with you). You don’t have that privacy in the middle, and it’s awkward. Laying down, the bed was very long and comfortable. I really liked the massage function, but the thing that really grabbed me (as dorky as it is) was the automatic window shade. You have two shades – one is opaque and the other allows some light to come through. You can control these from your massive remote control that seems too complicated to function properly for long in the heavy use conditions of the airline world (There are backups in case it breaks.)

The Rest
Qantas decided to put a lounge where Emirates puts one of its showers. The lounge is long and there’s a couch that stretches straight down one side with a TV on the other. Yes, it’s nice, but it’s hard to have any sort of group conversation because of the narrowness of the space. The Emirates lounge, of course, was fantastically large and had plenty of room to congregate. That being said, I have visions of additional seats where they put that lounge on Emirates whereas Qantas is actually making an efficient use of space.

Overall, both airlines offer impressive products onboard the A380, but they have different strengths. Ultimately, the only place these two products are likely to compete is on the Kangaroo Route from London to Sydney. In that case, it would be a very tough decision.

See the rest of my Qantas A380 pictures including a video in Business Class.

John Travolta’s Beautiful 707

CF — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:25:37 +0000

I may have spent today at the celebration for Qantas’ first scheduled A380 flight to the US, but as far as I’m concerned this plane stole the show.

Yes, that’s John Travolta’s immaculate 707. John is the Goodwill Ambassador for Qantas, and his 707 is painted in vintage Qantas colors. As he said in the press conference for the A380 today, “When I was 5 years old, I collected airline memorabilia from all airlines. I was . . . an airline geek.” Unlike most of us, however, he was able to buy his own private jet to fly around. I’ll have more on the A380 tomorrow, but I’ll leave you tonight with this great shot of the two aircraft meeting.

Tony France: Qantas Got it Right, Almost – The Airbus A380

CF — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:54:24 +0000

Tony France, the Traveling Optimist, is back with another post, and this is a long one. Last time Tony generated a lot of discussion, so let’s hope this does the same.

Friends of mine were planning on getting married in New Zealand during their down under Summer – Christmas wedding season of October – December. I started shopping the three main carriers from the United States, Air New Zealand, Qantas and United. I discovered that Qantas will introduce the A380 to Los Angeles in late October. Even though it will not operate to Auckland I went to the Qantas website to see if this airborne beast would offer something different enough to capture my attention and pull me off of the nonstop services both they and Air New Zealand provide.

They did. Qantas has translated size in to a rare spaciousness for the three premium cabins. In their highest density, United’s 747s carried 420 in an 18F, 32C and 370Y configuration. Virtually all Qantas and this airplane has done is take those same numbers, increase the size of the Business Class cabin by 40 and put the whole thing upstairs! Even with only one boarding bridge, getting on the plane at least should be fairly smooth thanks to a total of four aisles and two stair cases to distribute the payload and alleviate the herding sensation. Only in standard coach with 332 seats set in the standard 3-4-3 layout will the density feel no different whatsoever between the A380 and the 747.

What I don’t like about the Qantas configuration is easier and faster to explain than what I do like, which is plenty. For those of us who are claustrophobic, not having the enclosed confines of a Singapore Airlines or Emirates First Class Suite is a good thing. No paired seating, though, is sure to be something Virgin Atlantic will make much of when their version of the A380 debuts with Upper Class seating. Also, having the seat so far removed from the side wall to allow for the lie-flat feature to pivot, is unfortunate. According to their seat map the chair itself is a good two, almost three feet in to the cabin area. I’m a sightseer when I fly and, even in the middle of a 15 hour flight, I occasionally like to look out the window to see the stars, clouds, thunderstorms, holiday lights, city lights, fireworks, whatever. I especially like to watch the wing flex a little muscle during take off or turbulence or maybe spot another airplane on a parallel track or something. Maybe I’m supposed to be too busy, pre-occupied and otherwise above such things to care but if they had reversed this set-up I am of the opinion it would be more appealing.

Speaking of the wing, I have seen some videos of the A380 on takeoff from the passenger’s perspective. Particularly the view taken during Cranky Flier’s visitor flight on Emirates out of Los Angeles (below), I strongly advise any sightseer like myself to make sure they are seated either behind or in front of this massive construction. Impressive it is but if it could block out the sun it would because it surely obstructs the passenger view of everything else and will make a 15 hour flight even more challenging that it is already.

Click here if you can’t see the video

As for the back of the bus, fear not, coach flyer; despite the aforementioned density of 332 seats in 3-4-3 layout the one HUGE upgrade to this cabin is the introduction of 110v power ports to each bank of seats. Finally even coach customers are acknowledged for needing and wanting to use their laptops for work or their own entertainment in flight. This simple, phenomenal offering has instantly rendered anything by United and Air New Zealand both dead in the water…air. Who needs 160 channels of film and music when my own library can boast several thousand titles of songs, movies and games, completely unedited, personally selected and on a laptop screen up to 17 inches across without PA interruptions? Heaven!

With all respect to Coach for that is certainly where much of my personal flying takes place, I would not have placed First and Economy so close together on the same level. Even with priority boarding I would not necessarily want such a divergence in my customer base to mingle on the jet bridge. Neither would I want economy sized traffic traipsing through the refinements of First Class on the way back to Steerage even if they are, to borrow a line from “Titanic,” quite good on this ship. Moreover, placing Premium Economy above standard coach and just behind Business Class works for an illusion of exclusivity during the flight until it is time to deplane and there is only one jet bridge for the aircraft. That puts Premium Economy waiting to come down the back stairs and deplane behind standard coach. Through the galley. And past the lavatories. After 16 hours. Ew.

The biggest concern is having the entire Business Class cabin placed on the upper deck. For customers with physical disabilities how will a Business Class customer in a motorized chair board an aircraft through a single, main-level jet bridge and get to his seat upstairs? I saw no accommodation for an elevator, chair lift or other powered device to transit such a passenger from the main level. The 747 rarely ever had that problem because at least one cabin for each class was always on the main floor.

If the Business Class passenger cannot navigate stairs will they receive a complimentary upgrade to First Class? I doubt any Business Class passenger for any reason will accept a downgrade to steerage without a loud and long fight right then and there.

I like, no LOVE the 747-400. Economically the airplane may be nearing the end of its useful life but an airline with deep pockets can put an onboard product into the older aircraft to match Qantas’ investment with the A380. Air New Zealand is a solid service oriented airline that well knows the challenges of ultra-long international service. It has nonetheless gone two-cabin in its configurations and, as a classic example of a long-and-thin airline, is in no need of something as big as the A380. As a 747 replacement the 777 works just fine, thank you very much and, like a top notch gridiron quarterback, can “make all the throws” (fly every international route) this peppy little carrier needs to succeed.

Despite recent stories to the contrary, United is not again bankrupt but is in severely tight straits regarding fleet replenishment such as would be needed to go toe-to-toe with Qantas, Singapore, Emirates and Company. If United cannot afford or does not need the A380 then that’s fine but their announced upgrades have the overall affect of the emperor’s new clothes. Sadly for United, however, it appears old Mrs. Haversham will ply the friendly skies to Australia and Hong Kong, their two longest nonstop routes, for some years to come, pining for the customers with whom she once was one.

So, ultimately, my issues with the Qantas product are all about physical placement on and within the aircraft and not towards what appears to be magnificent creature comforts in all classes. The seats in each cabin look gorgeous and the food and amenities thoughtfully created and well appointed. None of my issues detract from the physical comfort or culinary standards Qantas has set. It’s clearly and simply a case of coming just within a hair of perfection – I like being able to get to my preferred seat without obstruction and, once settled in, I like to see where I’m going and what the world looks like around me. Qantas, I eagerly look forward to your A380 experience.

Flying the Emirates A380 in Business and First (Part Two)

CF — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:29:54 +0000

Now let’s see, where did I leave off after yesterday’s post? Ah yes, we were leaving coach behind and heading up to business class. (As a reminder, you can see all the pictures and videos here.)

At the top of the rear stairs, we entered the rear galley area and then saw the lav (bathroom). This thing is decked out with wood trim throughout and a nice big window. It’s too bad they couldn’t have the toilet face the other way so you could actually stare out into the blue while you do your business.

If you can’t see the galley and the lav, click here

After the lav, you enter the super cool guy lounge. If this were on the ground, I’d probably be denied at the door since my name clearly wouldn’t be on the list. Ok, maybe it’s not that cool, but this is probably the best that’s been on a commercial jet since the 747 upper deck lounge days many years ago. There’s a fully stocked bar in the middle along with couches and a big screen lining the walls.

If you can’t see the lounge and the cabin, click here

Keep moving and you walk into the business class cabin. This has a 1-2-1 configuration, and it seems like these seats take up a huge amount of space. It’s interesting how they’re set up. On the sides, one row’s seat will be right on the window while the one behind it will have the seat more on the inside. You’ll have to take a look at this video with my friend, Paul Tomasiello from Expedia, explaining the pros and cons of the cabin layout to get a better idea.

If you can’t see Paul talking about the business class layout, click here

Ok, enough about business class. Let’s head to the big show . . . First Class and the suites. There’s no doubt these are really nice from the moment you walk in. How do they stack up to the Qantas and Singapore suites? Good question, and I’m not sure I can answer it. I didn’t have enough time to play with them all, and they’re all really nice so it’s tough to pick a winner without actually taking a flight in each. That probably won’t happen anytime soon, so let’s just leave it by saying that I’d gladly fly in any of them. I do have to give Emirates a pat on the back for the personal minibar. That’s completely excessive but kind of fun. No matter what, you’ll have plenty of privacy and a lot of luxury. Take a look at the video for a tour of the cabin.

If you can’t see the First Class cabin, click here

The one thing that Emirates First Class passengers have that nobody else will is the onboard spa. There was a question about this when I talked about it last week, and I’ve confirmed that the water does stay stored in a tank after it’s used. It’s not expelled during flight, so they carry all that extra weight around. It’s clearly not an environmentally friendly option in any way, but it is definitely an impressive differentiator.

The two spas are located way up front on the upper deck on either side of the front stairway. These areas couldn’t be used for seating because of the stairs, so it’s a smart use of otherwise wasted space. The shower water didn’t turn on when we were there, but we were assured that you get full, “five-star hotel” quality water pressure. The attention to detail is unreal. They even have heated floors. Take a tour for yourself.

If you can’t see the onboard spa, click here

And that was about it. As you might have heard in the video, we were the last tour and we had to return to our seats for landing. I won’t bother embedding these last two videos, but you can see us turning toward the west with my home in Long Beach in the distance and then finally landing if you’re interested.

And that was it. After we got off the plane, I dropped Paul off at the airport for him to fly on a seemingly tiny 737 back to his home up north, and I headed on my way back to work. Emirates has really put together a great product here. If I get the chance to fly it one day, it will probably be in the back of the bus, but I wouldn’t mind. Even in the back, it’s a very nice experience.

Flying the Emirates A380 in Coach (Part One)

CF — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:19:00 +0000

Sorry it took me an extra day to put this together, but it was no easy feat. The A380 is one big plane, and I have plenty to talk about. Because of that, I’ve decided to split this post in half. Today, I’ll cover life on the lower deck, in the economy cabin. Tomorrow, I’ll go back to the fancy pants world of business and first class on the upper deck. I’m also doing things differently this time in that I’m focusing on videos instead of photos. If you want to see all the photos and videos, go here.

You might remember when I flew on the A380 demo flight out of LAX late last year. At the time, I talked about the airplane itself, but the interior didn’t matter because it was just the Airbus house interior. This time, it was outfitted with the full Emirates product, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on here . . . mostly.

But first, let me say this. My seat this time was right on top of the unbelievably massive wing, fairly close to the engines. The noise from those engines was significantly less than I remembered sitting behind the wing last time. It was virtually silent from where I sat, and that was impressive in itself considering its size. This plane feels like a tank, in a good way.

But getting on the plane would have to wait. It all started out slowly when our aircraft was delayed. As we waited for the plane to arrive outside the fantastic Flight Path Learning Center at LAX, we were all of a sudden taken aback by an American 757 landing against the traffic pattern (to the east). Needless to say, it was the emergency landing that the news covered thoroughly. That actually delayed the A380’s arrival by another 15 minutes since they had to briefly close the south runways.

Once the plane arrived, there was the usual press conference, handshaking, blah blah blah. You guys don’t care about that (and neither did I, really). Let’s get to the plane itself. I was seated in coach while my friend and still photographer (at least for this event) Paul Tomasiello from Expedia was seated in business class. (Not sure how he pulled that one off.) So they had everyone in coach board using the rear stairs and everyone in business board using the front stairs. Nobody was seated in first, as far as I know.

If you can’t see me boarding the aircraft, click here

Once onboard, the first things that caught my eye were the gigantic seatback televisions. They are truly massive for a coach seat. Emirates has set this up so that the entire bottom deck is a sea of coach, so seeing all the screens flicker in unison was an interesting sight. I walked for a few miles before finally reaching my seat over the wing. (They need water stations every mile or two on that thing.) The aircraft is set up in a 3-4-3 configuration, and I had the middle seat on the left side. Shortly after sitting down, the guy in the window somehow self-upgraded himself and I never saw him again. So, we had a nice empty middle seat.

If you can’t see me walking to my seat, click here

The economy seat itself proved to be comfortable. There is a good amount of legroom on board, to the point where my knees didn’t get very close to the seatback. I was surprised to see that the seatbacks were stuffed full of inflight magazines and catalogs, so clearly they haven’t gone paperless just yet. Once they do, there will be even more room.

If you can’t see me exploring the seat and IFE, click here

The seats have a nice recline. It’s the style of recline that brings the front of your seat forward so you don’t disturb the person behind you as much. That can be a pain when there isn’t much legroom, but in this case it worked out well.

Let’s talk about connectivity. This thing is seriously connected. There’s a universal power outlet in each armrest and a USB port in the back of each seat. There’s also a place to hang a coat on your seat as well as a cupholder that spins loosely to keep your cup level regardless of the pitch of the airplane.

Then there’s that big pretty screen. You can do all kinds of great stuff with this system. There are something like 1,000 movies, tv shows, games, music, etc. They also have the ability to share screens – which I believe means that you and your seatmate can watch the same thing at the same time on your own screens.

There’s a great map (which may be the same one that Air New Zealand uses?) and it even shows you the registration number of your airplane. That gets the official seal of airline dork approval. There are also three different camera views. One is taken from the nose pointing forward, one is taken from the tail pointing forward, and another looks straight down. I saw this on a South African A340 once before, but that didn’t prevent me from being entertained by it for a long time.

After making myself comfortable, it was time to get airborne. Check out this massive wing. Believe it or not, that’s a wingtip in the distance.

If you can’t see our takeoff roll, click here

August 5, 2008
Emirates #7224 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 1204p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 133p
LAX: Imperial Terminal, Runway 25L
Aircraft: A6-EDA, Airbus A380-800, ~250/489 passengers
Seat: 61B
Flight Time: 1h29m

Shortly after takeoff, the seatbelt sign came off, but I waited for the crowd rush to die down before taking my own tour of the plane. While we waited, they brought by some very tasty appetizers (mmmm, foie gras) followed by ample, flowing Dom Perignon.

I waited for Paul to come downstairs to visit us peons before we heading backwards on the guided tour. We stopped by the crew rest facility taking up the middle of the last few rows of the plane, passed the row with oxygen masks hanging down, and finally reached row 88, the last row in coach. After that, we took a trip up the winding rear staircase (felt like a cruise ship back there), and finally made it up to the rarefied air of the upper deck.

As I mentioned, this post is getting long, so come back tomorrow and I’ll have all the details on the upper deck. If you can’t wait, you can see all my pictures from the trip here.

This Week on BNET (July 28 – August 1)

CF — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:35:13 +0000

I have more from NBTA on BNET this week including discussions with both ANA and Lufthansa.

Frontier Receives DIP Financing from Perseus
I never thought we’d see it happen, but I’ve now been proven wrong. Frontier picked up $75 million to help them restructure and exit bankruptcy.

Continental’s Flat Seat Business Decision
It’s a large investment, so it has to be done right. Continental took a lot into account when deciding how to go flat in BusinessFirst.

Delta and Air Canada CEOs Talk to the Crowd at NBTA
NBTA had its big airline CEO roundtable yesterday, and Air Canada’s Montie Brewer combined with Delta’s Richard Anderson to talk shop and answer questions.

Emirates and the A380
Emirates picked up its first A380 this week, and with 57 more in the pipeline, the airline has big plans for the future.

Chatting with Star Alliance Members ANA and Lufthansa
I had the chance to sit with both ANA and Lufthansa at NBTA this week. What do they have in store for the US market?

NBTA: Qantas and Singapore’s Battle of the Suites

CF — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:34:31 +0000

It’s Friday, so let’s just forget about reality and move into the world of the super rich and famous. The hot trend these days? Private suites doubling as First Class. Emirates, Qantas, and Singapore are all entering the ring as are others, and it’s just ridiculously awesome, to say the least.

Now I didn’t get the chance to see Emirates’ stuff because I ran out of time. Since I’ll be on their A380 demo flight next week, I figured I could put them last. I did, however, get to see Qantas and Singapore show off their stuff. Which one wins? Well, they both do. Singapore has fantastic privacy while Qantas has some pretty cool uses of space. I’d be happy to take either one on my next trip.

Let’s start with Qantas, since that’s the one I saw first. These suites will be going into the A380 aircraft that begin flying for the airline soon. When you enter the suite, you can see that it appears to be open on the far side. This will usually be the side of the aircraft, but if you’re in the one in the middle, it may still be open to the aisle. I didn’t get clarification on that.

From the picture at left, you can see the floorspace to the left of the center of the seat. That’s where your TV is, and it’s where your tray table rolls out as well as your bed. The seat turns left and goes flat that way to avoid taking up so much room on the plane.

At right, you see the friendly flight attendant presenter sitting at what would be the foot end of your bed. When you’re not laying down, that becomes a seat and the tray table rolls out in between you so you can share a meal. It’s quite nice. That metal thing at the right of the picture? That’s your TV screen folded up.

The coolest part of this? The remote control. Check out this bad boy at left. It’s actually pretty heavy, but it’s impressive what it can do. Watch videos, listen to music, turn on your massager, dim your lighting, and electronically shade your windows if you’d like. It’s so cool. Hopefully it doesn’t break with so much complexity.

Now let’s talk about Singapore. They’ve gone for a different style of suite. The view at right is from the door. You look right and you see the very plush seat. If you looked left, you’d see the TV. Straight ahead of you is where the tray table rolls out. There is no angle here at all.

The bed is completely separate from the seat here. In fact, it took a couple minutes to set up and it’s a fairly complex procedure. Since this is Singapore, the flight attendants do it for you, and will of course be at your beck and call. The bed itself lies in the wall behind the seat. The seat folds down and the bed unfolds over it. You can see this (sort of) at left. You can also see that the attention to detail is phenomenal. They’ve even put a place for you to hang your headphones when you’re in bed. All of the suites here (and on Qantas, for that matter) have multiple locations for entertainment controls so that regardless of your position, the controls are always within reach.

This last shot (at right) shows me sitting down with spokesperson James Boyd. He is where my feet would lie in flat bed position. And you can see the screen behind his head. The table was very big and seemingly sturdy. It was a very comfortable place to be.

Though the walls of the suite don’t go all the way up, you have plenty of privacy here. There are shades over two open air holes looking to the aisle, and when you pull them down, only the bottom is see-through. This is, of course, for flight attendants to perform their duties.

As you can see, these are incredible and ridiculous all at the same time. It’s amazing to think how quickly First Class has gone upmarket. As long as there is enough demand for these seats, we can expect to continue to see more and more innovation in this area. Though I may not have the chance to fly it, it’s still fun to drool over.

Trip Report: Flying on the A380

CF — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:24:14 +0000

On most of my posts, I spend a lot of time picking apart numbers, doing research, and gathering my thoughts before putting together what hopefully ends up being something you enjoy reading. Today, you won’t see any of that. My post today is one of pure airline dork bliss. Yesterday, I took a ride on the A380, and here’s how it went.

Airbus brought their A380 back to LAX this week, but instead of just a static display, they, together with Qantas, decided to have a 2 hour flightseeing trip for about 150 people. When the offer came into my inbox, I obviously jumped at the chance.

The weather has been far from perfect in LA recently. We’ve had a lot of smoke from the fires, gray days thanks to the marine layer, and some hot dry Santa Ana winds to keep things interesting. This morning we’re even seeing rain. But when I woke up yesterday, there was none of that. It was a picture perfect Chamber of Commerce day that’s usually reserved for the Rose Parade every year. Perfect.

Our flight was to depart at 730a, so I arrived early to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The event began at the Flight Path Learning Center museum which resides in the Imperial Terminal building. (If you haven’t been there, go.) I checked in and despite my best efforts to show some skin, ended up with a coach boarding pass. It was blank, so they said just take any coach seat once onboard. Though they said photo ID would be required, they never checked it. But don’t worry. They did make me take my shoes off as I went through security screening.

I milled about the museum eating a continental breakfast and filling up on LAX history until about 645a when they called us for boarding (I think that’s when it was, I was a bit groggy). I jumped to the front and ended up being the second one to head out to the plane. We were guided on to a long red carpet (at left) which led us to the towering stairs up to the beast. The flight attendants at the door took my boarding pass and then I headed onboard eager to look around.

November 29, 2007
Qantas #380 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 730a Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 930a
LAX: Gate Imperial Terminal, Runway 25L, Dept :11E
LAX: Gate Imperial Terminal, Runway 25L, Arr :33E
Aircraft: F-WWJB, Airbus A380-841, Airbus House Colors, ~150/519
Seat: 7A
Flight Time: 1h17m

You won’t hear me bothering to review the interior of this plane. This the Airbus demo, so the seats aren’t actually seats that any airline has decided to use. This is just what Airbus set up too woo potential buyers (and apparently this trip is the last one before they rip it out and prep it for delivery). What I will talk about is the plane itself.

My first impression was that it would be an awesome place to play hide-and-go-seek. It is just a massive aircraft.That could partially be because there wasn’t anyone else on board, but more likely it’s just because . . . it’s a massive aircraft. On the lower deck, coach seating will be in a 3-4-3 setup, just like on the 747 main deck, but it did seem somewhat bigger. Part of that may be the illusion of big windows. See, the outer glass window doesn’t appear to be too much larger than normal, but the inner plastic window is very large and it funnels down to the outside. It really opened the cabin up.

I started walking back and, assuming we’d takeoff and loop around to the south, took the first non-bulkhead window in coach. That put me just in front of the wing, as you can see by my pictures. After sitting down, the first thing I noticed was the curvature of the cabin walls (at right). When you’re on a 747, the walls seem to go almost straight up and down on the main deck. On this plane, it appears to curve out from the bottom before straightening out. That made it uncomfortable to actually rest my head on the wall. So, if you’re in coach and you’re going to sleep, don’t plan on using the walls.

I walked backwards while everyone else was boarding and went up the spiral stairs. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let anyone sit in coach up there for the flight, but I did have a look around. The upstairs cabin is a more humane 2-4-2 in coach. The slope in the walls is noticeable, and like on the 747’s upper deck, there is a nice little compartment between the window seat and the window (at left). That’s a great feature, and I think it’s clear that unless you’re traveling in a group of three, upper deck seating if the way to go, if you have the choice.

I came back down when we were told to buckle up and get ready for the VIPs. VIPs? Well it was just LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He came on with a gaggle of television cameras, and made his way through the plane. When he got to coach, he exclaimed, “This is where the people sit!” and then proceeded to shake everyone’s hands and ask their names. That took awhile, but when he was done, he left. Weird, right? Well apparently there’s an old California law that prohibits government officials from accepting transportation. I hear this dates back to railroad times to help prevent corruption. So, even though this was a flight that came right back to where it started, he still couldn’t accept the trip.

Once he was off, it was time to go. We pushed back and taxied slowly down to Runway 25L. Right before we took the runway, a Qantas 747 conveniently landed right ahead of us. Cool.

We turned on to the runway and I had my seatback video tuned to the camera in the tail pointing forward. The engines spooled up and we were soon barreling down the runway. (Video of initial takeoff roll) Soon enough we were leaping off the runway. Below is a 16 second video I took as we become airborne. Notice all the helicopters swarming as we go by.

I’ve also uploaded videos of us climbing over the Pacific, encountering a few bumps, and turning.

As we continued to climb, I just kept focusing on the massive, heaving wing. It is a truly incredible structure, and probably the thing about the A380 that impresses me the most. Just an amazing work of art.

Anyway, as I said, we got up quickly, and that’s no surprise. With only 150 people on board and a short flight, they didn’t have much weight at all. I found out later that we took off at around 360 (369?) tonnes when the max takeoff weight is actually 560 tonnes. Think about that. That’s 1.2m pounds. Holy crap! I believe the 747-400ER can tip the scales at no more than 910,000 pounds if it wants to get airborne.

The seatbelt sign came off very quickly as we continued heading west along the coast toward Santa Barbara (and eventually Hawai’i – I kept my fingers crossed the pilot would keep going). At that point, it became cocktail hour as everyone got up and started mingling. The champagne came out in glass flutes while flight attendants circulated with appetizers, or as one attendant called them, savories. I just went for a walk.

The first thing I wanted to do was check out the noise. The thing I hear most about this plane is how quiet it is. Maybe it was just over hyped, because from where I was sitting, it certainly seemed quiet, but it wasn’t anything shocking. I mean, you still know you’re on an airplane. I went upstairs and discovered that it was a bit quieter up there. Yet another reason to sit on the upper deck.

On this trip upstairs, I pushed past the coach seats and headed into business class. Everyone was doting on the seats, but I went straight to the front where they had two Airbus engineers set up in their stations. Basically, they had a large area of the bulkhead cut out and outfitted with instruments showing exactly what the pilots were seeing on their gauges (at right). The two men at the station were taking copious notes when they weren’t talking to the growing crowd around them. That’s where I learned what our takeoff weight was along with other interesting technical facts. (Ok, they’re probably only interesting to me, so I’ll leave them out.)

I then walked toward the front and made my way down the main staircase to the lower deck. There was a sitting area and a side bar, but it was very crowded, so I just kept going through. That’s when I decided to visit my office, er, the lav. There are a bunch of lavs on this plane, but the one I picked seemed to be the nicest one. It’s the first time I’ve seen a commercial aircraft with a window (at left), and it’s the largest lav I’ve seen since the 777 handicapped lav. There’s PLENTY of room in there for, oh, say, having a lengthy political discourse with an acquaintance, and you get a view.

At that point, we had made our way up the coast toward Monterey and already started our return. Though I had expected a two hour flight, the flight attendants told us that we would shortly be beginning our descent and we would need to be seated. This time, I decided to park myself in a coach seat on the right side behind the wing so I could get a different view. I had been told that the ailerons really move around during turbulence to offset the flexing wing, so I hoped to see some of that. There were a couple of bumps, but I didn’t really see the ailerons move much.

I’m glad I picked this seat, because I had a nice view of Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands before we passed right over LAX (at right). Then we turned east just north of Long Beach (I tried to pick out my house), and looped around for final approach to runway 25L. The graceful glide toward the runway was shattered when the gear made a very loud noise as it deployed. I hoped we hadn’t dropped something, and apparently we didn’t. We landed with a thud and taxied back to where we started.

As I walked off, I noticed there was a spot where a seat should have been but it wasn’t there. I remembered seeing this on the Singapore seat map and thought it looked strange, so I asked about it. It turns out that is the emergency escape hatch from the underfloor crew rest area. So all A380s will have that missing seat. Of course, that led me to ask to see the crew rest area. They were kind enough to let us go down below to find 12 rather small bunks (at left). Compared to other crew rest areas I’ve seen, it did look pretty nice though. After that, it was time to leave the plane and get to work.

We can talk about economics of the plane, whether it will succeed in various markets, blah, blah, blah, but this isn’t the time for that. Something about flying a brand new airplane just makes me act like a little kid again. I simply, truly, enjoyed the ride and forgot about everything else. I think the smile on my face says it all.

If you’d like to see all my pictures in their original sizes, visit http://images.crankyflier.com/A380_Flight/.

A380

CF — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:58:17 +0000

I kept the title of this post simple because the plane needs no other introduction. We’ve been talking about this thing for years and years now and finally, it has entered commercial service. What can I say about it?

As with all new planes, I want to go for a ride.

The first plane was delivered to Singapore Airlines earlier this month and it went into service last Thursday between Singapore and Sydney. As more planes arrive we’ll see London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and San Francisco added to the route map. Nobody else will even operate the thing until later next year (Emirates), so for now, Singapore is your only shot. Let’s just take a look.

Despite all Airbus’ early promises, there is no gym and no movie theater. No, it’s just a bunch of seats, as most people predicted. Business Class and Coach don’t appear to be much different than what Singapore introduced earlier this year. Coach has the same standard 32″ pitch you’ll find on the rest of their long haul fleet. Business, on the other hand, has a little more room (pitch and width) than the already roomy standard on the 777-300s. But it’s First Class where things are really different.

Technically, there is no First Class on this plane. They’re calling it Suite Class, and it ain’t cheap. You can learn all about it here, but let’s go over some highlights.

The product seems to be similar to what Emirates pioneered onboard – the private suite. Well, it’s not entirely private because the walls don’t go all the way to the ceiling, but it’s pretty close. I wonder if putting the walls to the ceiling is some sort of safety issue? Anyway, it has everything you’d expect with a suite. Full flat bed, big tv screen, etc. But there are only twelve of these suites on each plane and they’re nestled up in the nose. I’d guess that 99.99999999% of the world will never even have a shot at flying this. So what else is there to love about this plane?

The thing I keep hearing over and over is that it’s a very quiet ride. That seems to be the only thing that really differentiates it in the eyes of the passenger in back. Business Class is all upstairs and actually takes up 2/3 of the cabin. The last third, along with 3/4 of the bottom deck is Coach. You can see the seat map here.

Unless you’re traveling in a group of three, it looks like the place to be in coach is on the upper deck. There it’s 2-4-2 instead of 3-4-3 and that makes a big difference for me. Then again, depending upon how many jet bridges they use, that could be the last part of the plane to get off.

A couple other things to note, the fuselage tapers in the back but they don’t seem to reduce the number of seats in each row. It might be a bit tighter back there. And what’s up with row 47? There appears to be only three seats in the middle there with an empty spot where the fourth should be. Maybe it’s a black hole.

The size of this thing is just incredible. Even though it looks pretty stumpy in person, that full second deck means Singapore can get 100 more seats on this plane versus their 747s. Even with that, they have only 471 seats onboard. Still, those extra 100 seats will help in places like London and Tokyo where they can’t add another flight because the airport is stuffed to the gills at peak hours.

I imagine the people at Airbus are happy to finally have this aircraft in service. Congratulations to them on delivering the first truly new widebody since the 777 back in 1995.

A380 Part II – The Evening Event

CF — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:09:26 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the A380 welcoming event this evening at LAX. You’ll be happy to know that I took almost 70 pictures from just about every angle of the plane you can imagine. Actually, only a few of you will be happy to hear that. The rest will be bored out of your minds. So, if you’d like to see them all, you can browse through them at crankyflier.com/A380. For the rest of you, I’ve taken a handful of cool shots and put them here for you.

They tried to make us feel special early on when our shuttle bus started on its way with a police escort. I have no idea why we had a police escort, because he didn’t flash his lights or run traffic signals or anything fun like that. When we arrived at the Flight Path Learning Center in the old Imperial Terminal, we could see the plane parked just outside with a throng of onlookers trying to get a good view through the chain link fence.

There were a lot of reactions as the plane came into view, but the most common was “Wow, that is really short.” It’s true. it does look short when compared to its incredible height. See for yourself:

We were greeted by what had to have been one of the best looking cabin crews around. Or maybe all Qantas flight attendants look like that in which case I need to fly them more often. I’ve never been to the Flight Path before, and the museum was a great place for LA aviation buffs. It had a ton of memorabilia from LA’s history, but I’ll definitely have to head back another time because my focus for this trip was on the A380.

While many people headed straight for the bar, my friend Paul and I went right for the aircraft. We were initially told we would only be able to see it from a distance, but that proved to be untrue. The Airport Police set up a perimeter around the plane and let us get extremely close. We couldn’t go in, and I wasn’t happy about that. This plane doesn’t have much of an interior – it’s just ballast tanks and test equipment. That made me want to go in even more, but oh well.

I spoke with some of the Qantas representatives, and they were obviously very excited to see the plane out at LAX. When they take delivery next summer (2008), the first route will be LAX to Sydney. The aircraft will see 501 people with First Class at the front of the bottom deck and Business Class at the front of the top deck. Economy will be at the back of both decks. The airline is planning to improve the seating in all classes of service, but naturally they won’t tell anyone what they’re doing before it happens.

Ok, enough of me talking now. Let’s walk through the pictures.

Here’s a closeup of the nose. As you can see, there’s a blank space where I assume Fedex used to be before they canceled. Airbus looks to have hastily prepared this plane for the display. They didn’t bother to remove the UPS logo (they’ve also canceled their order) and the plane was pretty grimy:

This is one of my favorite shots, because it shows it in comparison with the 747 pulling in behind. I’m so used to seeing the cockpit on the upper deck of the 747 that having it down below looked really odd here. It makes it look like a caveman with a really big sloped forehead. I wouldn’t call this the most attractive aircraft around:

You can tell that this truly is a test aircraft. This is on the underside of the wing, just behind the slats on the leading edge. I’m just going to guess that it’s speed tape holding testing equipment and NOT duct tape:

That is one heck of a wing and look at all those wheels. Also, notice the faint rectangular box just underneath the upper deck doors. Anyone know what that is? Is it a slide?:

The horizontal stabilizer looks like big enough to double as a 737 wing:

The curvature of the wing from behind is just incredible:

The size of that wingbox reminds me of a massive Russian transport aircraft. It takes a lot in the middle to support those gigantic wings. Note what I believe is a tailstrike protection device under the rear. (Anyone know better?):

It was tough enough narrowing it down to these few images. If you want to see more, go to crankyflier.com/A380. As you can see, this was a pretty amazing experience. With only around 130 orders for the plane right now and no American carriers placing orders, this could be the closest I get to the plane for a long time.