Fuel is one of the key concerns of the global airline industry today.

“One of the challenges we have is the fuel price, obviously,” says British Airways (BA) MD: Brands and Customer Experience Frank van der Post. “Other challenges are around taxation and local legislation.

“Our response to fuel prices is more-fuel- efficient aircraft,” he adds. “This is one of the ways in which airlines address the issue.” To this end, BA is acquiring 12 Airbus A380 Superjumbos and 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The A380 is 16% more fuel efficient than the aircraft it is replacing while the 787 is about 30% more fuel efficient than those it is replacing.

“For us, the A380 is the perfect aircraft,” he affirms. “We fly it to our longer-range destinations. Los Angeles and Hong Kong were our first destinations. For us, it’s an aircraft where we can bring capacity into key destinations and then either transfer them to London or deliver point to point.”

BA recently launched the Airbus A380 Superjumbo on its London–Johannesburg route, and regular scheduled services started on February 12. Initially, the aircraft will operate on the route three times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays – but next month the frequency will increase to six times a week. This means that the Johannesburg route is one of the earliest BA routes to be assigned the A380. “We are very proud to bring it to Johannesburg,” he highlights.

The airline is starting with three flights each way per week because it currently operates only four A380s, but more will be delivered this year, allowing the planned frequency increase. By December, BA will have eight A380s in service. The last of the airline’s A380s will be delivered by 2016.

The BA A380s are configured to carry 469 passengers, composed of 14 in first class, 96 in business class (designated Club World by BA), 55 in premium economy (World Traveller Plus) class and 303 in economy (World Traveller) class. The rostering of the aircraft on the Johannesburg route will increase BA capacity between the UK and South Africa.

“We’re very confident that we can grow the traffic,” states Van der Post. “When we announced the A380 for South Africa nine months ago, the extra capacity was quickly picked up by customer demand.”

BA regards its South Africa routes (it also flies to Cape Town) as “[v]ery important”. “We’ve linked up with Comair here – it gives us a great distribution in South Africa,” he notes. “We have great services to Johan- nesburg and Cape Town.” The assignment of Boeing 747 Jumbo jets and now A380s to the South Africa routes “clearly demonstrates, I think, the importance of this market for BA.” (BA frequencies to Cape Town are twice daily during the northern winter, switching from May to ten weekly for the northern summer.) Air France and Lufthansa already operate A380s on routes between Europe and Johannesburg, while Emirates flies the aircraft on the Dubai–Johannesburg route.

The A380 first flew in 2005 and entered revenue service (with Singapore Airlines) in 2007. To date, 122 have been delivered to ten customers, out of 304 orders by 19 customers. In the densest possible seating arrange- ment (an all-economy class layout), the A380 could carry up to 853 passengers, but most airlines opt for about 525 passengers in more than one class. Each customer has developed its own unique cabin configuration for the aircraft.

The A380 has a wingspan of 79.75 m, an overall length of 72.72 m and stands (from ground to tip of vertical tail) 24.09 m high. The fuselage is 7.15 m wide. Its main passenger deck is 49.9 m long while the length of the upper passenger deck is 44.93 m. These two decks provide 50% more floor space than the decks of any other high-capacity aircraft.
Maximum take-off weight is 560 t and maximum landing weight is 386 t. The A380 has a maximum fuel capacity of 320 000 ℓ and a maximum range of 15 700 km.