Why no airstair's on modern-day aircraft?

Answer 1

Im an aircraft dispatcher at London airport Stansted, and it was recently found that by removing, or not installing airstairs meant that a total of 220kgs could be saved. Thats an extra 220kgs of fuel/ bags/freight or 2 males per flight. Which ever way you look at it its adding more profits to the company. EasyJet is the example im using here.
It todays competitive world reducing aircraft weight is a bonus for the airline.
The Airbus family have used this to their advantage for many years, beating their rivals Boeing.
Hopes this helps.

Answer 2

Which aircraft are you referring to.

"An airstair is a passenger staircase that is built in to an airliner - often, though not always, on the inside of the bottom half of a clamshell-style door. The stairs can be raised or lowered while the aircraft is on the ground, allowing passengers to board or depart the aircraft without the need for a mobile staircase or a jetway. Although uncommon on modern commercial airliners, most bizjets are fitted with one, as were some of the early generation of jet airliners, such as the Boeing 727 and the Ilyushin Il-86, allowing them to operate from airfields with minimal support facilities."*

Nearly all Turboprops and piston twins have airstair doors.

Answer 3

Depends on the Aircraft

Answer 4

you mean those stair car things that pull up to the aircraft?

because they are not practical at all when unloading hundreds of passengers from a long flight. it would take so much longer, And just passing through a terminal then directly out to the gate is more convinent than having to go down stairs, then into a bus thing, then into the gate at tthe airport.
Look at this pic. for a boeing 777, this is how large a stair car would need to be

http://www.lift-a-loft.com/images/airline/airstair.jpg

its not practical


They only use stair cars on very small aircraft like on US airways express, American eagle airlines, etc.
But these are very small aircraft that only hold like 50 people

Answer 5

Smaller air crafts can opt for air stairs since the weight of the stair case will not be that much. But for wide body air crafts to have air stairs would mean a ridiculous amount of unnecessary weight. Ground handling agents (those companies that provide ground services such as baggage loading and water and toilet replenishment) always have a stair cart to fit along such air crafts if the airport has no bridge facility or if its inoperative.
Aircraft manufactures are always on the look out for reducing the weights of air crafts because that would mean a better fuel economy for the airline and thus lower air fares.

Answer 6

Weight is the biggest reason airstairs are no longer installed in airliners. Older aircraft like 727s, DC-9s, and some 737s had airstairs but most commercial airports have jetways that make airstairs obselete.

Answer 7

Turbine engined airplane (consisting of airliners) are between the least valuable varieties of transportation. the superb style of transportation is by employing deliver. that's extremely sluggish so that's in simple terms used for shipment strikes. airplane use greater than a number of potential to get off the floor and stay in the air. they ought to conquer greater than a number of drag to shuttle on the extreme airspeeds they prefer they do, this demands greater than a number of potential. while in comparison with a jet airplane (like a fighter jet), airliners are very valuable, yet while in comparison with a 50 passenger bus, a 50 passenger airliner is in simple terms no the place close to as valuable because of the fact the bus. that's in simple terms lots quicker.

Answer 8

Well I don't think DeHavilland would agree with that statement....


Depends on the size of the aircraft and how far off the ground the door is, surely.

Answer 9

Air stairs are an option, however if the carrier is not planning to operate into areas where they do not have ground support, then there is no need to add air stairs when they order the plane, and the plane saves several hundred pounds of useable load, which translates into increased revenue.

Answer 10

All of today's regional jet aircraft (Bombardier, Embraer) are equipped with airstairs. In addition, most MD-80 variants come with airstairs.