I stand corrected re: who has ordered these monsters. I found this chart. The alignment is off but you should get the picture.

Airline A380-800 A380-800F Options
Air France 10 0 4
China Southern Airlines 5 0 0
Emirates 41 2 0
Etihad Airways 4 0 0
Federal Express 0 10 10
ILFC 5 5 0
Korean Air 5 0 3
Lufthansa 15 0 10
Malaysia Airlines 6 0 0
Qantas 12 0 10
Qatar Airways 2 0 2
Singapore Airlines 10 0 15
Thai Airways International 6 0 0
UPS 0 10 10
Virgin Atlantic 6 0 6

TOTALS 127 27 60

I would like to if for no other reason than I have always wanted to fly a two level plane. Also I imagine it would be roomy considering there is the ability to add more seats.

I definitely wouldn't check my luggage! Ugh... imagine the nightmare at the baggage claim area!

I don't get it. The fact that a 747 can carry a maximum of 550 passengers (excluding special circumstances) - and that JAL and ANA probably do on their domestic routes - doesn't make your coach seat more comfortable on a United 747s that seat only 347, does it?

Now, the A380's lower-level cabin is wider than the 747, at 6.58m vs 6.13m. The extra width does make it more comfortable, if airlines resist putting 11-seat across. But no mention in any airbus material is the height of the cabins. It may be lower than the 747, and definitely lower than the 777.

747's maximum cabin height is 2.54m, while the 777 is 2.87m. One of the reason why the 777 feel spacious to many people.

Has anybody ever been on a 747 that loaded and departed in under one hour when the president of the USA was not on board? I haven't and I've been on many.

Has anybody ever been on a plane that is fully loaded and heard the familiar page "Will passenger John Doe report to gate whatever" and had to wait while they located his bags and removed them? I have, many times.

Imagine, then, what it will be like on an 800 passenger plane. Would I fly on it? The price is going to have to be really, really low.

will be a lot harder trying to figure out who farted

A 747 can be loaded efficiently if the airline and the airport know what they're doing. And with two doors, of course. I've flown 747s plenty of times even from stairs on the apron.

And unloading is even faster. Much much faster than say a 757 with 200 passengers onboard and a single aisle.

mm wrote 'Dubai as the #1 vacation spot in the world? You've got to be kidding.'

No I'm not, here's a link, its amazing to think that the Arabs could create all of this out of a desert and that people would be willing to come for holidays and conventions ;)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/holiday/destina..._bigkids_best/

Geordie

Dubai is a hub more than anything else, they fly from just about evrywhere all over Europe into Dubai, from the Uk they fly from Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, from Paris plus Nice, from Munich, Frankfurt and I think Dusseldorf plus so many others, their onward flights into places like Australia make BA look almost insignificant. In Asia BA is a minor player, Singapore Airlines has close on 10 flights per day into Australia, Emirates goes twice daily to most including non stops from Dubai, on Duabi Bangkok up to 3 per day, Lufthansa is a much bigger player into BKK than BA so with the growth in Asia traffic it is not surprising that Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Emirates and Thai have ordered the A 380. Some of these carriers are running almost parralel flights, that is where they will save, Emirates might cut back to 2 flights per day instead of say 3. Qatar Airways is also expanding fast and Ethihad on the horizon, that I think is why BA have not ordered as they need high frequencies on the likes of NYC but into Asia they are not a big player at all.

Just to add to what rkwan said, on domestic from Phuket and Chiang Mai into bangkok when they sometimes use staris/bus to deplane those huge doors make deplanning much much faster than parking at the gate, ok, the short bus journey might equal it out in some circumstances but using the old fashioned way it can be emptied very fast.

Sorry when I said Dubai as hub I was referring to Emirates as a carrier that carries a very high amount of transit passengers thru their hub.

No thanks--just imagine all those people talking on their cell phones!

Well, I hope the engines on the Airbus A380 aren't so strong that they blow the tails off the other planes. Remember what happened in New York with AA's Airbus?

Would I fly the Airbus A380? If they had free wine in coach, "OF COURSE."

Not sure why everyone would be so freightened. You all sound like our grands and greatgrands when flying first started.

I am sure there will be a million practise runs and no one is looking for lawsuit that will cripple an industry.

Concorde shut down the line after one accident? That was what I remember, it was never clear to me why they did this. I thought they just never recovered from the blow of one accident, enlighten me if I am wrong here. It was also too costly to operate at a profit I thought.

Its not like people said oh oh this is too dangerous. Correct me if you know something different.

I do think this will if it ever makes its way into mass transit will be as a poster above mentioned the way to pack in more people at a profit. Those drinks at the bar will probably come with a cover charge as well as a premium cost.

Just my guess.

About the Concorde - the accident happened in July 2000. Both BA and AF grounded the fleet, as they should, because running over a small piece of metal on a runway shouldn't cause a plane to crash and kill everybody onboard.

You can say it's a design defficency, if not a flaw. As a result part of the suspension is redesigned, and new tires are developed.

British Airways even use this down time to refurbish the interior of all its operating Concordes. The developers (i.e. the British and French government) never recovered the high developing cost of the plane, but it was definitely profitable for BA and AF to operate it.

What really killed the Concorde is 9/11. Some of BA's Concorde customers were killed in the WTC, and numbers of travellers were down dramatically. That's what caused the eventual retirement of the planes. Not the AF accident of 2000.

It's so interesting to see the variety of responses.

I would want to fly in it once it had been up and running for a while.

From South Africa Emirates is one of the biggest players to Europe and the East. The prices are just so competitive that people are flying the extra hours and having a stop over in Dubai.

As to Dubai being the #1 destination - absolutely - it was the most intersting 4 days of vacation I have ever been on. It's an amazing place with such variety and the Government is working so hard to promote it. It is already in the top 10 for UK destinations.

Another thread should be started about Dubai. I think for US travelers, Dubai would pretty much be near the bottom of most people's lists. I assume it's quite cost-effective for European travelers-- but for someone flying from the US, Paris or London would be as much of a jaunt as Dubai, and come on, where do you think we'd prefer to go?!?

RWJ- I was just in an office in Manhattan last month where the receptionist came back from Dubai. I would love to check out Dubai! You are probably correct about most Americans but also remember that most Americans have never held a passport. You really want to put yourself together with that group??? Not me LOL.

Last note Kwan, yah gotta get away from the long airplane ride dread. Think of it as a long car ride you may have taken as a child. Heck I would do Paris for a long weekend. I have done Italy on a four day weekend, not optimal but certainly a thirst quencher.

Ok Honolulu on the Martin Luther King day weekend from NYC was a bit over the top but yah do what yah gotta do when the travel bug bites and the airfares are down. LOL.

Sarah - Where did you get that I don't like long plane rides? In fact, I think I'm the only person in the world that has ever <b>looked forward</b> to a 15-hour non-stop plane ride in regular coach, sitting at the very back of the plane!

Really, I am not kidding. I even wrote a trip report of my EWR-HKG flight, and others, on this very forum!

Emirates fly non stop from NYC to Dubai from where they have an amazing number of flights down to East and Southern Africa, Indian ocean islands, India/Pakitsan, throughout South East Asia and Far east and onwards to Aus/NZ, although heading to Far east is quicker over 'the top' for people heading to many destinations Dubai is a sound choice, also the airport has excellent transit facilities and it's a good place for a stopover.

On the question of boarding and deplanning I often go to places whwere they still use airstairs and a 737 offloads in a couple of minutes, baggage goes straight inside, so fast. As I said even a 747 deplaning via normal stairs offloads far faster than everyone heading in 1 direction forward to doors.