B747-8 intercontinental and A380?

Question

BOEING: The 747-8 Intercontinental is more than 10 percent lighter per seat than the A380, and consumes 10 percent less fuel per passenger.
AIRBUS: The A380 is the most economic ......
WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?

Answer 1

The 380 is better for Asian flights where people don't mind being packed in tight like sardines in a tin can.

I also prefer the 747 because I believe Boeing has a higher quality product.

When the first 787 comes off the line in Everett August 8th it'll be the most efficient plane on the market, with it's carbon body and super efficient engines, There won't be any bleed off to pressurize the cabin like all other current planes have - it'll be done with internal generators.

Answer 2

The 747-8 seats up to around 450 people while the A380 can seat 555 in a 3 class configuration or 800 in a single class configuration. Some routes are very dense, meaning a lot of people fly it. Therefore the 747-8 may not be big enough in that market but flying 2 747-8 per day on that route would mean too many empty seats. Therefore an A380 would be better suited in order to maximize revenue.

Answer 3

Both planes will offer good economics over specific routes mostly transpacific and transatlantic service. The 747-8 will be successful mostly because of it's commonality with other 747s and the 787. The A380 will enter service and be seen more and more over the next few years on the world's airways but I do not think it will be produced in large enough numbers to break even let alone make a profit. The public has many different wide bodied airlines at their service and although there will be a lot of publicity when the service begins, people will not be lining up to travel on so large a plane just for the thrill of it. On the contrary the traveling public has had plenty of experience with large planes and will shy away from one so large as the A380. They're saying "do you want to spend eight hours flying with seven or eight hundred people?"

Answer 4

NO NO NO!!!! the guy 2 posts above me thinks that you need to get the highest number of ppl on a flight, you dont! you need to fill the plane, if you can fill 2 thats great but flying one 747-800 at a 10% fuel savings can mean thousands and a fulll plane means tons of profit, at a lower weight means lower landing costs, the A380 is too big for its own good... thats why they have almost 1000 orders fewer than they expect to have by 2010... good luck with that...

Answer 5

The 747-8 will be able to operate into all current international airports without requiring extensive modifications. The energy and resources spent on re-equipping airports to accept the A380 makes it automatically a less environmentally-friendly airplane, even before it takes its first passenger.

If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going!

Answer 6

if it were a question of and fuel consumption, i'd go with the A380.

if it were a question on the volume of passengers on a specific route, again, i'd go with the A380,

if it were a question of using less fuel because the aircraft is lighter, i'd go with the B747-8

Answer 7

Matt nailed this one with the comment about not relying on the engines for Cabin Air.

Using 'Bleed Air' for cabin pressurization reduces engine efficiency. Economy, i.e. return on the dollar, is gained by reducing the change of air cycles in the aircraft.

No smoking policy enables the operators to reduce the cycles even further. While eliminating second hand smoke is laudable, breathing stale air shared by 100's of other people is not healthy.

With the 'pandemic' threat becoming a real possibility I think Boeing has taken a real positive step. Thanks Matt for enlightening us.