Quoting Thorben (Reply 47): I respect other people's opinions. But why would the trend be using smaller aircraft? |
Using your logic, it will never be enough--eventually someone would have to build a quadruple decker to keep up with the proposed growth. The trend will be towards smaller, lighter, and more efficient planes, with lower operating costs. As fuel costs have risen, fares have not, and what has been demonstrated is that passengers are sensitive to fare increases. The A380 is not efficient, not light, and not small. And fuel costs are not going to decrease, the only hope is that their growth rate will slow in the coming years. You refer to the Asia market, where landing fees are based on the weight of the aircraft, this indicates to me that the A380 on its surface already has a stike against it.
You are blinded by your passion for Airbus--but unfortunately, the A380 is going to be a failure in business terms. It was a nice idea, but poorly planned, and awfully executed. The prior leadership of Airbus has failed the employees of the company and the taxpayers of the contributing countries, and ironically he seemingly has to answer to no one.
Boeing was smart to push the Sonic Cruiser as a counter product to the A380, while Airbus was touting the A380 as a cruise ship in the sky. Then once the EK order was secured, and Airbus announced the launch of the A380 officially, Boeing reveals the concept of composite technologies. Too late for Airbus to adapt it design to lighter materials, so it is committed to soon-to-be-obsolete technology.
The American aircraft maker has already proven its capabilities with composite technologies in the military aircraft market. That is why it did not matter what Airbus when saying:
"787 is a Chinese copy"
"787 is rushed and ridiculous"
Boeing had already proven it knows the technologies involved in creating a composite aircraft, so the Airbus attacks were weightless. Airbus, had four reinventions of the A350 before they settled on a design to sell after the 787 started gaining momentum. By developing the 787, Boeing is able to apply one set of R&D to redesigns of successful models 737, 747, etc...
Try out this link, I think you'll like what you read:
http://www.vialls.com/boeing/giantkiller.html
The author makes some good points, but I disagree with him on most points.