Here is news that Airbus will enjoy all day today, and copies of this news will be circulating via email for weeks. Emirates president Tim Clark extolled the virtues of the A38O as a 'great crowd-puller'. He spoke at the World Travel Market in London where he said the aircraft was the answer for capacity constrained airports such as Heathrow.
Predicting a pick up in international travel, Clark said: "The sort of thing to do in places like Heathrow is to go with bigger aircraft. It will relieve pressure on those airports." He described the A38O as being more fuel efficient than expected and "hugely profitable". Clark added: “The faster you fly it, the less fuel it burns.” Emirates currently has five A380s operating 16 hours a day and running load factors of 9O%.
The questions jump out; more fuel efficient than expected? hugely profitable? His last quote simply defies physics. Once Airbus required a bigger fan on the engines to achieve QC4, it was possible the fuel burn was going to improve as bypass ratios grew. That the plane is "hugely profitable" is a statement that really deserves qualification. But don't expect it as the company's numbers have never been transparent. As always we have to take him at his word - and the airline is is going to acquire another ~50 of these planes. So imagine the impact if he's not blowing smoke.
His final quote really is something. We don't have the context of the statement but really does seem to defy logic. Again, we have to take the statement as is - but here's a question then: why can't the airline fly it between DXB and the US west coast? Is the plane's range really that marginal? Here's hoping the media with access to him get more detail and color on these statements.
In other news --
- Mexicana joins oneworld
- A sea change?
- Winter cometh
- McCain and the tanker (yes, again)
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