Non-stop flights between Australia and London creep back into the background briefing

[Gerald A]

The Airbus A380 seems to be closing in on a future capability to fly non-stop between Australia and London by stealth rather than to a fanfare.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalk...und-briefings/

[NickN]

Current A380s do not carry fuel where a central fuel tank between the wings is permitted in the general design.

What is located in that space at the moment?

[Erik H. Bakke]

That's pretty much just empty space at the moment, if I understand it correctly.

[Lee G]

If memory serves me correct there is a cabin crew rest down there somewhere

[Bernie P]

Please refrain from quoting the whole previous post in your post, it is not necessary, thank you - mod


EK Crew rest is at the back of the main deck, in the middle section... Lots of crew running around in jammies with 'CREW' on them!!!

[D Chan]

is there sufficient demand for a non-stop AUS-UK service? such flights would be charged a premium, not sure if anyone could afford to fork out the extra $$$ during current times

[Nick C]

Very unlikely to happen.

The great circle distance of LHR-SYD is 9150+nm. The A388R will most likely have a range of 9700+nm on a restricted payload and 8800+nm on max payload. Factoring headwinds throughout the year due to the seasons, the A388R will still be able to make it to LHR-SYD on a restricted payload for most of the year. SYD-LHR will be out of the question as the headwinds will increase the distance to 10000+nm. It will still need to make a stop to refuel.

Since the A388R is doing ULH, it also has to sacrifice cargo to tanker fuel for the latter part of the flight, lots of cargo revenue lost as a result. While fuel is cheap now for such ops(compared to a year ago), once the economy recovers we will be should see it in the range of the $80~90s. It makes more sense to make a 2 hour stop and at the same time the aircraft will be able to uplift more cargo as less fuel is carried on board.