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Heathrow dealing with 380-800 challenges

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  • Heathrow dealing with 380-800 challenges

    So the aircraft that was supposed to alleviate crowding and congestion appears to be posing a challenge with its own set of characteristics at airports like LAX and LHR. Interesting read.

    Source: Aviation Week

    According to Jon Proudlove, NATS general manager at Heathrow, Boeing 747s can take around 45 sec. to taxi onto the runway and line up ready for departure, but A380s are taking around 65 sec. A Heathrow report on A380 operations states that on one occasion, it took an A380 as long as 111 sec. to line up on runway 27L.

    “Heathrow operates on a knife edge,” says Proudlove. “The impact of these aircraft nibbles away at runway capacity. “By 2030 we expect to handle up to 60 A380s a day, but there is no plan for that, we can’t plan for that,” he says.
    I would guess this aircraft is not a controller's favourite.

  • #2
    I find it interesting how a single aircraft can be blamed for capacity and congestion constraints at airports across the globe...as if the aircraft suddenly popped up out of thin air...giving airports no time to prepare for it's entry into service. Furthermore, everyone knows that LHR's problems stem from it's entanglement of terminals (now being addressed) and it's lack of runways (not being addressed). In any case, the 747 had these same issues when it first entered service. What did airports do?....they "adapted". Yes, the A380 is a big airplane, but it's not a flying Godzilla. If anything, the A380 is simply bringing to light the problems that have existed at these airports for decades, but were never dealt with.

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    • #3
      New marketing tool for the Boeing 747-8: "Shorter line-up time"
      New marketing tool for the A-380-800: "Sorter line-up time per seat"

      --- Judge what is said by the merits of what is said, not by the credentials of who said it. ---
      --- Defend what you say with arguments, not by imposing your credentials ---

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      • #4
        Cegro: Because airports built 30 years ago, and modified to increase capacity cannot instantly adapt to an aircraft with a wingspan larger than anything in history; that is so big that adjoining taxiways must be aircraft size limited when the 380 is around to safely pass, to deal with engines that hang outside the runway that blow unbelievable amounts of debris onto the runway when ever it takes off, that takes twice the time of anything else to de-ice, and reduces aircraft movements simply because of its wake turbulence. It's a pain to deal with on many levels. 60 380 arrivals will immediately wipe out 40 landing slots daily.


        Dave Brook
        Cambridge, Ontario

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        • #5
          Ironic, is it not? ...that the oft touted savior of congested airports, may have the effect of causing more congestion that it alleviates.

          I sometimes wonder if HND is thanking its lucky dragons that it doesn't have to deal with this.
          Us, lighting a living horse on fire:
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH2_Q3oJPeU

          Check it out!

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