A380 – can it use MAN 24R?

There’s also the case to be made that for the inaugural service, there was a wad of media in the Viewing Park so that “close-up”s of it rotating could be taken.

I said that not knowing what the destination was on it’s inaugural flight? How much fuel did it have on board? That could make a huge difference to it’s takeoff weight.

Think it’s more to do with the clearance by the Airport Pub. Plus 23L has an advantage of being flatter than 23R – this more be may of a “fun” remark though!

And I wonder why you think EK would operate an empty flight out of MAN, 27vet? Seeing that they were operating at over 90% loads on the 77Ws, it would have meant too much trouble to disperse 400 passengers over the other UK flights. Think it left with about 500 pax on board (and has on at least 1 occasion left full i.e. 517 pax)

I wonder if it’s classed as a special case to avoid having to leave a big separation to the next departure?

A small or medium sized aircraft departing from the same point on the runway as an A380 requires three minutes of separation. Taking off behind any other heavy aircraft requires just two minutes separation. Both are timed from the moment the preceding aircraft becomes airborne.

Thanks for the link – it opens fine here and shows the A380 can use the Taxiway (J) leading up to 23R, so I’m no nearer to knowing why it went over to 23L.

There were a couple of aircraft queued up to depart on 23R so I wonder if it’s classed as a special case to avoid having to leave a big separation to the next departure?

Ian

Cloudwarrior, maybe they were empty.

Look here There is an ICAO A380 Gound Movement Chart for EGCC. It wont open on my computer for some reason. Maybe the answer is there. Lemme know what you find.

On its inaugral flight back in September, it did depart from 23R.

(obviously I mean 23L/R, my compass is old :))