atlengineer From United States of America, joined Jul 2010, 72 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (2 months 3 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 15812 times:
Quoting factsonly (Reply 2): Check this page to see how the EK A380 fleet is performing:
musapapaya From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2004, 1003 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (2 months 3 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 15596 times:
Quoting atlengineer (Reply 3): From the link, it seems to me that there are an unusual number of "technical issues" delaying flights. Thoughts?
ATLengineer
Its either they have a good reporting system, or their planes are maintained to a lower standard to other airlines, or they have a lot more flights everyday than other airlines.
I do have to say that, on my last EK A380 flight back in January 2013, on a 2 month old machine, lots of those window blinds were broken (the handle of them) in Y class, it does not look good at all and gave the impression that EK dont look after their planes as well as it should be.
As you see if you read the article, Airbus then had lots of false indications, partly the result of a conservative approach early in the service life. However, operating costs are better than specified and are further improving as new blocks of mods reduce weight and make other improvements. The cancellations and technical delays are almost all false warnings. Dispatch reliability has recently gone above 98.5% as I recall from another report, so is now meeting contractual terms. Further the A380 is doing turns regularly in less than two hours with no problems.
All in all operators seem pretty pleased, and attest that the A380 has fewer launch problems than did the B777, the A340 or the B744.
BTW, OT, I'll wager the B787 will be an easy aircraft for dispatch reliability once a couple of hundred of them get in service so all the bugs can get worked out. As the B773 and A380 have shown, software problems are easy to fix once they've been understood, but they're very hard to diagnose precisely. That makes serious improvements slower in the beginning of service, if I understand this correctly..
jet-lagged From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 849 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (2 months 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 8119 times:
Last two weeks saw a nice Thai A380 while transiting Narita. Big purple.
Backlog is drying up though, down to 2006 levels. Might be at 2005 levels before year end unless orders pick up.
astuteman From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2005, 9136 posts, RR: 96 Reply 12, posted (2 months 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 7117 times:
Quoting Flighty (Reply 9): How much weight has been cut from the A380 since early builds? Will they cut more?
About 3 tonnes from the airframe, with another tonne to come (according to EK, who have also taken about 2 tonnes out of their cabin in the same timeframe)
flood From United States of America, joined Feb 2009, 1052 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (2 months 3 weeks 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 6847 times:
Quoting atlengineer (Reply 3): From the link, it seems to me that there are an unusual number of "technical issues" delaying flights. Thoughts?
In skimming through the homepage and the February archive, they reported three technical issues this month. That doesn't really strike me as an unusual number.
Quoting jbcarioca (Reply 7): Dispatch reliability has recently gone above 98.5% as I recall from another report, so is now meeting contractual terms.
At the ILA in September Airbus stated they're now running at 99.3%.
Airbus is underlining the positive effect that a number of retrofit measures on various systems has had on A380 dispatch.
A380 marketing head Richard Carcaillet says the retrofit improvements lifted the fleet's dispatch reliability rate by a percentage point, to 99.3%, from the beginning of 2012.
The improvement has been notable during the course of delivery of the past 25 aircraft, he says.
Modifications have been made to systems such as landing-gear door sensors which, he says, were "a bit too twitchy" as well as fuel pumps, electro-hydraulic actuators and door systems.
wellies From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2009, 40 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (2 months 3 weeks 2 days ago) and read 5699 times:
Quoting astuteman (Reply 12): (according to EK, who have also taken about 2 tonnes out of their cabin in the same timeframe)
Quoting musapapaya (Reply 5): on my last EK A380 flight back in January 2013, on a 2 month old machine, lots of those window blinds were broken (the handle of them) in Y class
scouseflyer From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2006, 3254 posts, RR: 10 Reply 18, posted (2 months 3 weeks 2 days ago) and read 5645 times:
Quoting JohnClipper (Reply 14): are there some L/N's missing in sequence? I flew A6-EEC a month ago and that was MSN 110. Did some not get made or get skipped?
Yes a number were not taken up or delivery deferred once a number had already been allocated - e.g. the freighters and the planes for MH were initially supposed to be early build and were then deffered but some early numbers were not reused. Also MSN001, 002 and 004 are still at Airbus as test aircraft or (in the case of 002 awaiting delivery (for ever!))
breiz From France, joined Mar 2005, 1808 posts, RR: 2 Reply 20, posted (2 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 1205 times:
Quoting scouseflyer (Reply 18): Quoting JohnClipper (Reply 14):are there some L/N's missing in sequence? I flew A6-EEC a month ago and that was MSN 110. Did some not get made or get skipped?
Yes a number were not taken up or delivery deferred once a number had already been allocated - e.g. the freighters and the planes for MH were initially supposed to be early build and were then deffered but some early numbers were not reused. Also MSN001, 002 and 004 are still at Airbus as test aircraft or (in the case of 002 awaiting delivery (for ever!))
The A380 deliveries are notorious for being completely out-of-sequence, nearly random.
This is based on cancellations and deferrals, yes, but also several batches of ac with different kind of problems/upgrades.
The cracks and their remedial works have added to that.
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