Last week, Hawaiian Airlines came out with an aircraft order that really surprised me. True, the airline has never hesitated to change its long haul fleet going from the Lockheed L1011 to the Douglas DC-10 and most recently the 767 in just the last 15 years. So I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve now decided to go over to Airbus, but for some reason it is.

The announcement says they’ll go for A330s in 2012 and then A350s when they come available in 2017. Right now, they have 18 767s and this order is only firm for 12 airplanes (6 of each) but with options for an additional twelve. So I think it’s safe to assume that these will come in and replace the 767 fleet completely if all goes well.

So why are they doing it? Well, if you’re interested, listen to this 16 minute podcast from the IAGblog that has Addison Schonland interviewing Hawaiian President and CEO Mark Dunkerley. He basically says that the 767s either hit “retirement age” or come off lease between 2009 and 2014, so they need new planes.

Why not get new 767s? Well, they don’t really make them anymore. Instead Boeing is focusing on the 787. So why not get 787s? Well, they aren’t available until 2017. Neither are the A350s, right? Well, yeah but Airbus could offer the A330 in the interim. Why not pick up other 767s in the interim? This is where it becomes a guessing game.

Dunkerley says the market is tight and there just aren’t that many planes out there right now. At some point when the 787 comes out, the 767s will come available rapidly but Hawaiian didn’t want to take that chance that it would happen in time for their needs to be met. Interesting stuff. It sounded like they wanted the 787 but they just couldn’t make it work. So they went Airbus.

What does this mean for customers? Well, it means they’ll have more middle seats in each row since the A350 is 3-3-3 or 2-5-2 and the A330 is 2-4-2 instead of the 767’s 2-3-2. But the order also means that Hawaiian is betting on an expansion so there will be more places to go. As they said in the podcast, they’ll be looking to go from Hawai’i to the East Coast and to Asia. That being said, the West Coast will remain their main market.

Hopefully they aren’t being too aggressive here. I mean, they’ll have a lot of seats to fill with these new planes. The A350 will have 322 passengers compared to 305 on the A330 and no more than 264 on the 767s. That is a lot more seats than they have today, and I think they’ll have a tough time filling them all.

I know this is probably more interesting to the airline dorks than anyone else, but the podcast gives you a good opportunity hear their thought process. Interesting stuff - maybe I should try podcasting if I can find anyone who want to talk to me.

Any time China announces they’re interested in getting into a market, people perk up and listen. I guess having over 1 billion people will do that for you.

So when China said they wanted to get into the commercial aircraft manufacturing business, I would assume Boeing and Airbus started drawing up battle plans. It may sound crazy now, but think back to the 1970s for a little perspective. At the time, Airbus was just getting started with their first plane, the A300. Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed all scoffed at their attempt. Fast forward and you know the rest of the story. Lockheed pulled out of the commercial market and McDonnell Douglas was swallowed by Boeing. Now the company that was laughed at in the 1970s has proven to be Boeing’s only true competitor.

There’s no reason that same thing can’t happen with China. The country has a very large sphere of influence and could likely sell aircraft through Asia, Africa, and South America with just a little political pressure. If they create a truly impressive plane, low prices and financing deals could make this take off very quickly. The idea of flying on a Chinese-made plane may sound funny now, but let’s see how it sounds in 20 years.

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.

Well, the A380 has now arrived at LAX and I’ve got the video to prove it. I went out to the airport this morning to watch it arrive. When I got there at just after 8a, there were already a good number of people waiting, as you can see down below.

In ‘n Out decided to open at 8a, 2 1/2 hours earlier than normal to help feed the crowd. They even put out a big tank of water for everyone to keep hydrated. They can now add “airline dork-friendly” to their title as the greatest burger place around.

At about 845a, the area really started to fill up, but there weren’t as many people as I expected. A lot of people were listening to the tower frequency and they said the controller told an arriving aircraft that the A380 would be landing around 910a. Of course, that got everyone up looking around but there was nothing to be seen. I moved out to the corner of Sepulveda and Lincoln becasue

By 915a, many more people had arrived (including a friend of mine who just flew in from San Francisco) but again, still not as packed as I would have guessed. Lincoln was closed by the police and you can see that people started trickling into the road. There were people standing on the roof of a rental car shop on Sepulveda as well as people standing on top of a bus. The police were out in force but they weren’t hassling anyone. Everyone was in a great mood.

As the time approached, you could feel the buzz building. Thanks to a relatively low marine layer, the arriving aircraft blended in to the clouds until they were a couple minutes out. People were just waiting anxiously with one hand on their cameras. Finally, we saw a four engine aircraft approach in the distance. As it got closer, we realized it was a United 747-400. At first, everyone was disappointed, but I realized later that it would provide great perspective for the A380 which approached right after. So, I took video of the United 747 arriving. Here it is:

And don’t get angry, United fans. The “Stupid, United” comment was only because it wasn’t the A380. I always like watching a 747 land. So then right after that, we saw what had to be the A380 lining up. It’s definitely not the best looking plane around, but man is it big. Here’s the video you’ve been waiting for:

So there it is. The plane was surprisingly quiet, but it’s size was incredible. It’s probably tough to get that feeling from the video, but when you’re right underneath it, it’s pretty cool.

I’ll be at the special event tonight for invited guests only, so hopefully I’ll get some great still shots out of that one.

I think we can now unofficially declare the A380 dead. UPS announced today that they have canceled their order for 10 freighter versions of the A380.

Since Fedex already canceled their order and Emirates converted their orders into ones for the passenger version, that leaves no takers for the A380 Freighter anymore. I would imagine Airbus will just walk away from this so they can concentrate on the passenger version, but then again it wouldn’t surprise me to see them keep chugging along with the program to save face. (I hope not.)

I know where I’ll be on March 19. Airbus has buckled under the pressure from Qantas and LA World Airports and announced it will bring an A380 to LAX on the same day it brings one to JFK.

The initial announcement said that Airbus would bring the plane to JFK, Dulles, and Chicago/O’Hare on behalf of Lufthansa. Well, Qantas wasn’t too happy about that, and they wanted to see the plane come to their huge LAX operation. Meanwhile, LAX said that Airbus had promised the airport the first visit in the US if they completed the upgrade work necessary to allow the A380 to operate. Well, they did, and now they’re getting their way.

I haven’t seen any details, but with any luck they’ll land on the north runways. I’ll be sitting at In ‘n Out watching if that’s the case.

If you’ve flown on an Airbus narrowbody (A318/A319/A320/A321) or an A330, you’ve definitely heard the sound that makes you think something is horribly wrong, especially if you’re sitting near the wing. As you wait to take off, you look out the window expecting to see this:

But don’t worry, it’s not actually a ninja repeatedly kicking a seal in the head, nor is it a dog that got loose in the belly of the plane . . . it’s just the Power Transfer Unit (PTU).

First, here’s a little background. These aircraft each have two separate hydraulic systems. Those hydraulic systems power some pretty important things, like flight controls. Each of those systems is powered by an engine-driven pump. One is on the left side while the other is on the right.

When both pumps are working, there’s no need for the PTU, but when only one pump is working, the PTU enables a single pump to also power the hydraulics on the opposite side. It’s most common to hear this while taxiing, because you’ll often taxi with one engine to save fuel. When both engines are running, all sounds normal.

So next time you hear the noise, just remember it’s nothing bad. Now you can reassure your fellow passengers that all is well. (Cue “The More You Know” music.)

For more info, read this article.

It’s time once again for the completely irregular segment I like to call random bits of info. There have been a bunch of little airline stories the last few days, so I’m just going to rattle them off here now.

• Hooray for the Brazilian courts! - It was ruled that the two American pilots being held in the Gol accident investigation cannot be held any longer. After some more interrogation and a promise to return when needed, the pilots will be free to go home. At least someone realized the gross injustice going on down there.
• Virgin Blows . . . - At least, that was the gist of the press release announcing the airline’s return to the Windy City (that’s Chicago). A daily flight between London/Heathrow and Chicago/O’Hare begins April 23, 2007. The airline used to fly from Chicago but pulled out afternoon Sept 11, 2001. I’m surprised that they’re going back, because it’s a very competitive market. American, United, and BA all fly it multiple times a day.
• . . . So Does LAWA - In the news of the lame, LA World Airports (LAWA) has announced it will rename Ontario Intl Airport to LA/Ontario Intl Airport and Palmdale to LA/Palmdale Regional Airport. Since apparently nobody knows where Ontario is (Canada?), this is the right thing to do. Actually, the Ontario renaming doesn’t bother me nearly as much as Palmdale. I mean, Palmdale doesn’t even have any flights! Do you think that airlines will start flying there just because of its new name? Lame-o.
• Lufthansa to Kick Airbus in the Nuts - Rumors abound today that Lufthansa is set to be the first major customer for Boeing’s new 747-8 with more range and more seats. This is Boeing’s competitor to the A380, and if a German airline which has traditionally ordered Airbus chooses Boeing here, it’s very bad news for Airbus.
• Does God Hate El Al? - That’s definitely a question being asked these days. Due to a general strike, El Al opted to fly on the Sabbath in order to get people home. Well, the flight to New York had rudder problems and had to return to Tel Aviv, prompting those onboard to say it was the “finger of God” punishing them for flying during the holy day. Um, ok. Now there’s a huge boycott in the works by the ultra-orthodox community, and the airline will probably be forced to sign a document saying they won’t do it again. My question is this . . . if they boycott El Al, who are they going to fly? Everybody else flies on the Sabbath. Good luck with that one.