Money Beat

Everybody talks about the enviroment, and yet nobody protests big, gas guzzling, chem spraying jetliners that aren't even at half capacity. Talk about wasteful hippocrates!

How about some useful numbers, like the time it takes for all those passengers to board the plane and get seated (compared to a 747) before we get away from the gate? How long for unloading all the baggage before I can hope to see mine to show up at the carousel? What is the seat occupancy/fill rate of these planes being flown by the Singapore Airlines? What is the current fill rate of the flights from Dubai to NY with the older planes? (I doubt it is close to full!)

well said... what a waste of energy/fuel... people just don't wake up!

Who are you to define the waste or good use of fuel that you don't even own? If there is a demand for this product, as determined by the number of people enlisting to fly on the plane, then it's not a waste. Who died and made you King?

Okay...

Dist to Dubai from New York = 11000km
Number of passengers = 500

Figure on 3 people per prius (due to luggage) would equal 166 Prius's.

Let's assume this would be highway driving @ 20km/liter (realistically, would anyone want to drive from New York to Dubai on back roads?)

11000/20 = 550 liters to drive from New York to Dubai.

550 * 166 = 91,300 liters of fuel.

A380 says 3 liters per passenger per 100km.

That would equate to 110 units * 3 = 330 * 500 = 165,000 liters.

Delta of around 70,000 liters of fuel, in favor of the Prius.

But... lest we forget... Kerosene is easier to "crack" than unleaded fuel. And I don't know if Airbus included take off fuel usage in their estimate.

I think it's probably a wash.

Ken

Private shower?

The SUV of the aviation world!

Hi,

While there's nothing wrong with Hippocrates, there is with hypocrites.. Last week I read in the paper that one company routinely makes completely empty flights just to protect their slot on Schiphol Airport in The Netherlands. You want to talk waste, talk about these practices and not about useful means of mass transportation you couldn't do without. I am pretty convinced that these 'slot-preserving' flights are pretty common practice. Investigate and hang 'm high! Uhm.. Out to dry I mean ;-)

Hey Ick, it's hypocrites (meaning those who pretend to have virtues they do not actually possess), not hippocrates (which is the name of an ancient Greek physician). Lol!!

This is the future of commerical flying, as routes get dropped. You will essentially have one or two planes going to one large hub, and then trains and autos from there. Gone (or about to be) are the days of small commuter jets and large puddle jumpers (like the Dash-9)

Just because they don't consume the same gas as this beast, you have to factor what it cost to fly the different planes, say an MD-80, a 737, 747 or even the 777, along with the 319's and 320's to get a real cost to travel. Comparing them to what it would cost to buy Priuses is not a really good apples-to-apples comparison because you are not putting in thousands of pounds of fuel into a hybrid. It just makes a colorful idea that really doesn't say much, until Priuses can sail across the ocean as this beast is really designed for. If they started using it as a commuter plane, then I would refer to it as the SUV plane, but for now it's just more people in potential trip than breaking it up into two flights.

I am surprised no one talked about it being new engineering really. Most new crazy things like these, the Hindenburg, the Titanic to name a few tend to crash and sink before the perfect them. Whereas the 747 only has 5 engineering errors, whereas a Cessna 172 has just over a 1000 errors. I am curious how safe this new Airbus is. If you have ever riden on an Airbus, they often sound like they are falling apart from the inside when taxing or spining around the tarmac.

Well this leads to my dream!
Neuclear Airliner seating 10000 or so, flies from US-ASIA price-per ticket under 700$.
I can fly twice per year to my home country!

I can see terrorists salavating right now. Bring down one of these babies and that would be a coup. American airline carriers, trying to save money, would probably jam 10,000 people into one of hese things......if they could.

I wanna fly Emirates next time I fly just so I can get to fly on the A380. It sounds like this plane is really the way to go since I can see there will be more international travel in the coming years esp. from the Americas to the booming economies of Asia and the Middle East.

No surprise that this jumbo plane is owned by Emirates Airlines. Note the reference to private suites with closed doors and the price tag for such luxury flying around the world. Just remember: the dollars that paid for the purchase of this energy inefficient behemoth (read up on the made in America Boeing Dreamliner) came out of your pocket and mine, through the gas pump, and across the Atlantic to the oil rich and dollar rich Middle East. I'm not pressing my nose to the window of this aircraft. I'm holding my nose.

hey!we're talking mass air transfort here it means wether passenger slots were filled or not the flights must go on...forget about gas consumption no big deal..luggage? it doesn't takes a week to have it...think about reaching your destination on time otherwise airports will be pested with all angry hungry, stranded passengers without these planes on time.

Poor journalism. The title, "World’s Largest Passenger Jet Makes U.S. Debut" is incorrect. This plane, the A 380, landed at LAX months ago for an exibition and to take proper measurements for the airport. The video can be seen on many video sharing sites.

Funny how individuals in the United States (as well as other countries) are made to feel like gum on the bottom of shoes if they don't recycle a piece of paper the size of a stamp, or if they put a plastic fork in their mouth, but large entities often become the darlings of the media because of their ability to WASTE THINGS!!!!!!!! Hypocrites!!!!!!!

Little boys needing big toys...the Spruce Goose flew too, but just for a little while...

It is not correct to say this was "the first U.S. landing of the A380". An A380 landed at the SFO airport on October 4, 2007. Do a web search on "airbus a380 sfo" for more info.

Actually the first A380 flight to the US was on 3/19/07 to JFK in NY, with 500 passengers from Frankfurt. A 2nd A380 plane without passengers landed in LAX on the same day.

This article also didn't mention Qantas airlines, which is already selling tickets for A380 service between LAX and Sydney and Melbourne. These flights begin late October 2008.

I fly internation monthly. I was recently booked London to Singapore. The agent glowed about being able to fly the A380. I asked it the A380 got there any quicker than the B-747? Of course the answer was no. I booked the B-747, I am too old to need "the A380 experience" and pay a 25% premium for the "experience". "Just get me there safely, feed me and let me sleep."

Gosh darn you folks are bigger losers than the people who bash McCain. Crawl back in your hole while progress goes forward without you.

1: big machines scare me. Remember what happened to the titanic? I hope I never have to baoard this bad boy.
2: How do you justify it's gas guzzling ability? And why do we need such a big craft anyway?

History will repeat itself it always does. My sincere sympathies to the families who will loose loved ones to yet another stupid invention.

I live in Dubai and my family is in NY. The price of a ticket went up from 1200 (last december) to 2000 usd now because of this beast. While i wouldn't mind flying one, the fact that it now costs 800 more bucks to get back on the nonstop is not worth it.

I work for a US Airline with alot of paxs connx in JFK to Emirates from the Southeast and the Emirates flt is always full...in FIRST and BUSINESS...always...sometimes Coach is not but the more expensive seats are always full...by the way US Airlines charge 2000.00USD plus more for First Class for a flt NYC to Brazil,Argentina, Japan etc....most of their coach paxs connect only in Dubai...most go on to Africa,Middle East,even Asia...ant THEY ALL LOVE the SERVICE...we could learn lessons from them BUT my Bosses would not listen anyway until its too late...