A380 Fear and Loathing

so I'm not the only one that thinks "yeah right" whenever I hear a news report about how this plane will have lounges, shopping malls, a gym, automobile test drives, a climbing wall, dry cleaning and a shooting range. It's an unnatural act for the airlines to do anything but pack as many sorry SOBs shoulder-to-shoulder as they can into this flying beer can. Maybe Paul Allen's A380 will have a lounge and a gym, but I can sure as shit guarantee you that the one I will be on won't.

Link: A380 Fear and Loathing.

Today, the Airbus A380 flew. Oddly, this seems to be treated as a good thing. On this page there is a frightful lie, namely that the plane will seat 555 passengers with lots of room for lounges and shopping and so on. This claim is oblivious to the facts that most airlines are losing money and most travelers are highly price-sensitive; ergo, this turkey will carry 800-plus suffering souls packed in like sardines, which means that after you roll up to the gate, you can count on the best part of an hour filing off the plane so you can make the transition from unpleasant airplane to unpleasant airport.

Comments

[Luca]

If there will be enough SOBs willing to pay for A380s with lounge and gym, there will be airlines flying them!

But if all SOBs are like you and me, the A380s will all be 800-seaters with cheap tickets.

[Alexander Peschkoff]

Thinking out load here: it could well be the case that A380 could be making more money from the right on-board service mix, rather than from headcount increase. Airlines claim they only make USD10-30 max from each passenger.

On a 9-12 hour transatlantic flight passengers get bored quickly. Some do sleep all the way through, some read or work, but there could be certain number (how high remains to be seen) who would be willing to spend some money whilst on board.

After all, airlines do make decent profit from duty-free (it's there to make money, not to please the passengers). If they can find high-margin services to sell, it could be more profitable for them than carrying extra passengers (not to mention perceived passenger comfort from not having to fly like a sardine).

Just my USD0.02