How India Can SAVE the A380

the rise and demise of the A380 has been as spectacular as it has been Swift what was once heralded as the future of commercial air travel has completely flopped even though passengers absolutely love the plane Airlines don't feel the same few Airlines have bought it and those that have have been casting it aside with Reckless abandon without a miracle the super jumbo may not be around for much longer but luckily for all of us the plane might just have a savior Indian Airlines could and probably should buy the A380 let me explain foreign now before hopping into the video I gotta admit that I'm a little bit stretched thin I work a full-time job while also running this channel solo and that means I often work 16 hour days while I love doing it I find that I have less and less time to read which is a bummer because I'm a firm believer that knowledge is power that's why I'm pleased that blinkist is sponsoring today's video blinkist allows you to understand the most important Concepts from over 5500 non-fiction books and podcasts in as little as 15 minutes for a long time people have been telling me I need to read Malcolm gladwell's books on human behavior but I've simply never had enough time but on a recent trip to the supermarket I threw on the blinkist rendition of outliers one of his most famous books in just 16 minutes I was able to grasp the nine key ideas that Gladwell puts forth on why High Achievers are so successful right now by listener can try blinkist free for seven days and earn 25 off a premium membership and recently blinkis added a new feature called blinkist connect which allows two people to share one premium account which is a pretty good deal so if you're in need of a last minute holiday gift or just want to expand your knowledge go give blinkist a try by visiting the link in the description first let's talk about the state of Indian aviation in 2024 the country will overtake the UK as the world's third largest Aviation market with the majority of that growth coming from domestic expansion AKA flights within India itself to keep up with that demand Airlines like Jet Airways and Air India have been eyeing huge orders for hundreds of new planes the only problem is that there isn't enough space for all those new aircraft right now there are just too many Indian Travelers and not enough airports to handle them all as a point of comparison the United States has about one airport per 700 000 residents India has one airport per 11 million residents that's 16 times higher unsurprisingly these airports are stuffed to the brim with planes and passengers alike and in turn delays happen constantly on average one in every three flights in India are late as a matter of fact India's most punctual Airline go air has a worse on-time performance than America's Least punctual Airline Allegiant this doesn't just hurt passengers it also impacts the airline's ability to schedule effectively and with more planes being added to the mix this problem will only get worse now to its credit the Indian government is taking action in early 2020 India's finance ministry greenlit a plan to build a hundred new airports while this is certainly a step in the right direction many of these projects were delayed due to covid and don't have a clear completion date to make matters worse these 100 airports may not be enough to address growth the country's Aviation Minister now says they need far more and is pitching a plan to build 220 new airports however it will be an uphill battle to find both the will and the capital to make this new plan a reality so it's clear that building new airports won't be a sufficient short-term fix what India needs right now is a way to accommodate more passengers without increasing the total number of planes enter the A380 which seems like the perfect tool for the job the A380 was designed to address this exact conundrum with the ability to carry over 500 passengers at once a single A380 can do the job of three to four narrow bodies in theory this can reduce traffic on taxiways and runways and increase the total number of passengers an airport can handle but of course the A380 never managed to live up to its potential it was plagued by two key weaknesses its high operating costs and its high purchasing costs the plane is a gas guzzler and it can only turn a profit if at least 75 percent of its seats are full now the plane is huge so filling it consistently has been a challenge for many Airline slides in addition new a380s came with an absurd price tag at a list price of 445 million dollars it's the most expensive commercial jet of all time if not for these two shortcomings maybe just maybe the A380 could have lived up to its potential and the good news is that both of these flaws can be overcome in India first off the demand for Indian air travel is skyrocketing as such Airlines won't struggle to fill the jumbo second the price of a used A380 has plummeted right now secondhand a380s can be had for just pennies on the dollar the cheapest a380s out there are going for as little as 40 million dollars which is just nine percent of their original list price with both of these obstacles surmountable it seems like the A380 may have a real chance to soar but hold on a second how do we know that the A380 will work in a domestic setting after all it was designed to fly long InterContinental routes not short hops well let's take a look at Japan for inspiration like India Japan has a very high population density and due to geographical limitations it's been hard for them to build new airports as such Airlines like a a and Japan Airlines turned to massive high-capacity 747s to fly domestic routes this strategy worked wonders and these 747s remained in service for over three decades today those jets are retired but their legacies live on both a a and Jal continue to operate many domestic flights with wide bodies so the business case has been clearly defined but which Indian carriers are most likely to actually adopt the plane well not every Airline is suited to fly it SpiceJet for instance only flies bowing Jets so buying the A380 is a non-starter and indigo India's biggest airline has dominated the market by using just a320s so it probably isn't eager to shake things up however there is at least one major airline where the plane is a fit that would be Air India the country's flag carrier now the A380 might seem like an odd choice for Air India after all its current widebody Fleet consists solely of bowing Jets but a few weeks ago the airline made a big announcement Singapore Airlines would be taking a 25 stake in its business Singapore is the world's second largest A380 operator and they've built a robust training and maintenance Network to support the jet now Air India can also leverage those resources making it much much easier to integrate the jet into its Fleet of all India's carriers this is the airline that has the greatest chance of success so it seems like India is the ideal environment to showcase the a380's potential and there is at least one Airline who might adopt it so then why haven't we seen this happen yet well there are a few roadblocks that need to be addressed before the A380 can shine first the a380s wings are simply too big for most airports at nearly 80 meters across the plane needs icao code F Gates and only four airports in India are code F compliant now it just so happens that these four airports are the ones that need the A380 the most they are in densely populated areas and suffer the worst congestion but for the A380 to gain wide Acceptance in the country it'll need to operate into other airports as well now remember India is building at least a hundred new airports which could include code F gates from the start but these airports are likely to be built in smaller communities that don't already have a major commercial hub and their less likely to suffer congestion in order to get the absolute most out of the jet India's existing airports especially those in big cities would need to be retrofitted and since the country is already spending so much money on other airport-related projects there probably isn't much appetite to make this happen but even if new gates could be built other issues still linger take a look at this picture of an Air India A320 does anything look off to you well the planes got some weird looking gear many of air India's a320s have double bogey landing gear meaning they have twice the number of Wheels as traditional a320s this Oddity tells us a lot about the state of India's runways and taxiways many of them are brittle built from less impact resistant materials now these funky a320s use these wheels to better distribute their weight so that the pavement doesn't crack but no matter how many the extra Wheels you put on an A380 it'll never be able to use these runways it's the world's heaviest plane with a dry Mass that's over half a million pounds for many of the country's runways the plane could just sink straight through them these runways would need to be completely redone to accommodate the super jumbo which of course would be an expensive endeavor ultimately these limitations might scare Airlines away from the A380 and perhaps they'll look for an alternate solution after all Air India is currently evaluating both the 787 and a350 for international expansion perhaps they can just reallocate some of those Jets to fly domestically but this solution isn't great those Jets won't arrive for many many years while the A380 is available now alternatively they could look to buy other used Jets like the Triple 7 200 a jet that Air India knows well but the used jet Market is currently on fire with the cost of use planes going up and up only the A380 has been immune to such price hikes and I can't believe I'm saying this because it sounds oxymoronic but the A380 seems like the most cost effective solution finally you could argue that Air India might buy used 747-400s instead since they have a long history with the type but the A380 flaws and all still has much better operating economics than that near 40 year old jet that's especially true in a high density all-economy configuration at the end of the day the A380 can still be a big help even in a limited role even if it's confined to serving just as a shuttle between India's four biggest airports it could still be a game changer reducing congestion where it's needed most ultimately if Indian carriers take a gamble on the A380 they could end up being very pleased with the result so I just got off my very first A380 a couple weeks ago and it was a pretty remarkable experience I always knew that people loved the A380 but it isn't until you actually fly it that you realize just how incredibly comfortable it actually is if you guys have also flown the a3d I would love to hear if you agree and hopefully we all get the chance to fly the plane again before they all fizzle out thanks again to blinkist for supporting today's video and also to my patrons who helped make this channel possible if you like what I do and want to help the channel grow go ahead and check out this link right here and as always if you learned something new today leave a like And subscribe to keep learning and until I see you again don't forget to look up foreign

Channel: Coby Explanes

Views: 572,562

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Id: 1TYtO4OHYQE

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 09 2022