[chinaboy8]

Wow, all those posts and not one from Martyn Sinclair. Hooray!

[HonestCrew]

Noooo! Don’t send it to Dubai Bucksnet. Send it to Narita. 450 Japanese sleeping all the way compared to 450 (mostly) Brits want want wanting from gear up to gear down drinking the plane dry.
No contest from this side of the fence.

[Bucksnet]

I respect your posts honest crew, but Dubai is a logical choice. BA need to send their first A380 to a compatible airport, obviously, but one that can be done in well under 24 hours, if they want to run a daily service.

Plus EK operates the same equipment on the route, and BA can combine the 2 night flights into one, so saving a daily slot pair.

NRT can be the second route, and as it takes more than 24 hours, fits in nicely with DXB.

[HonestCrew]

Agreed Bucksnet. I was just being selfish. Dubai is one of the least popular routes for us crew. Operating the equivalent of a 4-class and a 3-class 777 sandwiched on top of each other over to the sandpit gives us the the shivers.
But, if it brings in the £££’s……

[Bucksnet]

DXB could go to mixed fleet to keep the costs down and better compete with EK.

[LeTigre]

While considering costs and capacity is useful, it is notable that aside from China Southern, all of the airlines operating the A380 are using it on flagship routes, what might be described as Tier1 routes with high yields, like JFK, SIN, HKG, SYD, etc. While NRT might be a contender, BA can most effectively use A380s to increase premium traffic to key destinations. I have only heard of A380s replacing two daily flights on two routes, and even then it was temporary.

Think of the traffic that the A380 brings…DXB does not deserve it!

[transtraxman]

Are the A380s and B787s designated to BA or are they for IAG without specification? Does anybody know if Iberia ordered any A380s or B787s off its own bat before the merger? IAG now, surely, decides the allocation of the aircraft.

[LeTigre]

BA will receive the aircraft it ordered, none are designated IAG, and Iberia has not ordered any 787s or A380s, only A330s.

[RichHI1]

Does anyone have an update on the cracks? Will they delay the delivery of either aircraft to BA?

[HonestCrew]

Using Mixed Fleet on this route wouldn’t save much money. The pay for regular crew is low for Dubai so I doubt it will move over any time soon, unless for other operational reasons.

As much as I feel MF is a bad idea from the customer experience side of things, I wouldn’t wish it upon them to be given this route. They have already been chucked in at the deep end, a Dubai flight would be like keeping a foot on their heads.

[LeTigre]

Is the leisure traffic to DXB really that bad?

[RichHI1]

Is Dubai a leisure destination? Colleagues who have visited clients there did not paint a picture of a holiday destination. I thought this was a business destination.

[HonestCrew]

It is a popular leisure route for economy travellers. A typical cabin will consist of a very high proportion of Brits, (higher than most other routes) many young couples who have fallen for the Dubai Tourism Department’s spiel, only to find out there is naff all else to do apart from burn in the sun or burn ridiculous amounts of money eating out. The day sectors are non stop. People wanting their money’s worth. The “we’re on ‘oliday” brigade.

I have no problem with working hard but here people ‘want’ for the sake of ‘wanting’. Top this with the crappy arrival/ departing times in DXB (with regards our sleeping pattens) and the low pay, DXB always triggers that tickle in the throat, the “Hmm, I might end up being sick that day” feeling.

[LeTigre]

Come on, Dubai does have enough things to do, as long as you only have a maximum 3 days and are willing to go to the neighbouring Emirates!

It was alright in 2004 when I went there with family, a few skyscrapers and shopping centres plus some nice hotels but no too built up and definitely not too Western. Subsequent trips have proved that it has become a concrete jungle so now I really prefer Ras Al Khaimah- nicer beaches, relatively good hotels, not too developed, good boat trips from there, cheap food, etc. But even RAK is being developed…only Oman left!

[Shanwick1249]

Rich

The cracks issue was a minor, minor problem that got way more publicity than it ever deserved because of ‘A380itis’ in the media and the link back to the Qantas incident (which was not an aircraft fault). The cracks were confined to a specific number of early production aircraft and did not occur on most of the aircraft flying today. It was a manufacturing problem now corrected on the line at Broughton and has no effect on future production.

[Author]

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