A380 to connect metro cities?

New Delhi: With the world’s largest passenger aircraft, A380, on a maiden demo visit to the country, aircraft manufacturing major Airbus said it hopes to book orders for 50 A380 aircraft from India worth around $15 billion over the next twenty years.
Interestingly, one of the new prospective customers from India — which includes Air India, Jet Airways and Air Deccan — has even shown interest in flying the superjumbo to connect metro cities within the country, Airbus’ chief operating officer, (customers), John J Leahy, told ET.
Senior Airbus executives pointed out that there was scope for flying the superjumbo for short-haul travel, lasting two to four hours, especially in large countries such as India and China.
“A380 has the capability to carry 850 people on board in an all-economy configuration — which is 100 more passengers than what the Rajdhani Express carries — at per seat cost which is less than train cost,” said Mr Leahy. Typically, the flight time for connecting metros will be anywhere between two to three hours, as compared to at least 18 hours through Rajdhani Express.
Incidentally, Air Deccan managing director G R Gopinath, who was on board the flight from Toulouse to Delhi on Sunday, has shown interest in acquiring an A380 and fly it on domestic destinations, said Mr Leahy. “We are sure some smart airline operator would see value in the proposition,” he added.
07/05/07 Sudipto Dey & G Ganapathy Subramaniam

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Categories: Airports May 2007, New May 2007