Exactly. At the end of the day, should such horrible situation arise again we have to see the bigger picture here. Even if hijackers managed to kill a large number of passengers, it would still be preferable than them gaining control of the aircraft and killing many times more on the ground. No pilot would open the door today no matter how ugly things got at the back.

Tricky situation. The passengers should not jump out of their seats, but few people are aviation experts and if they saw fuel leaking out I can’t really blame them for thinking the plane was doomed if it took off.

Perhaps memories of the Concorde crash are still too fresh in people’s minds.

No 737s to lease for love nor moeny, but plenty Airbi

Kinda says it all 😉

737s break easily?

:diablo: 😉

They’ll soon end up crammed full of seats.
Oil prices will eventually go up again.

Gauranteed folks.

With the major airlines, that is about as likely to happen as getting rid of all other facilities on their other planes (bars and rest areas for example) and filling those with seats as well.

Unless you believe that, say, Virgin is about to scrap their bars and massage parlour areas and fill them with seats in their 747s and A346s, I can’t see why they would do it with the A380.

Competition if nothing else will probably ensure this. With the airlines currently competing to ensure their A380s are the most luxurious and innovating, I can’t see one of them suddenly reverting to filling up the planes with seats as a very popular decision with passengers. Where there is direct competition available on a route between rival A380s (say Asia/Australia) an airline would be foolish to increase number of seats when the rival one is offering the extra space.

In any case, even with the maximum 555-seat, 3 class layout configuration the A388 would offer unprecedented amount of floor space for passengers so it must be a win-win situation for passengers.

Cool. There seems to be a bit of a competition between airlines to make their A380 interiors better than the others.

And practically all operators seem to be implying their a/c will have fewer seats than the standard maximum for 3-class configuration and that there will be unprecedented space on their planes.

Contrary to the ‘stunts’ seen in other a/c where pianos and bars were installed initially, only to be removed shortly after and plane be crammed with seats, I believe the A380 will be kept ultra-spacious and redefine passenger comfort for the life of the aircraft. With all the major carriers at least.

Can’t wait to get in one.

No doubt a few people out there are crossing their fingers and hoping something goes wrong.

it is not… and you are very naive to try and say so.

The 777 is targetted at the A340 variant. Its payload and range show this.

Fact of the matter is, despite launching after the A340, the 77 has nearly twice as many orders and far more deliveries.

Just like the A330 kicked the 767’s ass, I bet you’d have no problem tlaking about that.

It you want to put it that way… though naturally it cuts both ways, and there are no end of comparisons to be made…

For instance, I could suggest that the A340-600 has kicked royal butt of the mighty Boeing 747 since its introduction…

The fact is most if not all of the 777, 330 and 340 models overlap and compete with each other to a degree. Remember that all of this started with your ”eating shorts” gratuitous comment, and my simple pointing out that the 777 competes with various models of the A330/3340 family, not with just one variant.