A380s coming back

[thejuggler]

BA A380 Heathrow Frankfurt was a regular trip a few months ago. They are useful for transporting large amounts of freight.

Knowing which aircraft operate which routes may be on timetables.

 

[Bald Rick]

Looking back through the history of FRA-LHR flights...it definitely wasn't a one-off! BA905 was regularly an A380 during January and February; BA907 was an A380 yesterday and today and BA911 has fairly consistently been an A380 for a few weeks (since 905 ceased being an A380). The summer timetable kicked in yesterday though so it'd be a convenient time for them to remove it from the route.

It’s A380 today. (XLED)

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I was poking FlightRadar24 the other day and saw an A380 on a Frankfurt - Heathrow service. Not sure if it was a one-off or not however!

It's daily on weekdays at least, and I think it is the only regular short haul use at the moment ( unless they've still got a Madrid return in place? )

 

[roversfan2001]

I've looked on their booking engine for the next week and can't seem to find any A380s booked. FR24 seems to have them all in for narrowbodies from now on too.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I've looked on their booking engine for the next week and can't seem to find any A380s booked. FR24 seems to have them all in for narrowbodies from now on too.

Oh poo.

Looks like the shortest sector, then, will be Dubai.

 

[Ted633]

The A380 on the Frankfurt route will be adhoc. The flights are used to quickly increase crew cycles so they are ready for when all the 380's come back (whenever that may be).
It is certainly not solely for freight, A380's are awful at that.

 

[mmh]

Before Covid BA had 380s regularly scheduled on short haul flights. I could well be wrong but I think London to Moscow was one (probably not now!) but a frequent flyer geek friend of mine definitely went out of his way to go on a short A380, and all other kinds of things I didn't really understand.

The flyertalk forum is, as I understand it, the best place to ask about this sort of thing

 

[oxfordray1]

Thank you very much everyone, that is very helpful. As luck would have it, I need to go to Frankfurt in the Autumn. Perhaps I'll get lucky.

I'll look at FR24 and the flyertalk forum.

 

[Crawley Ben]

I was poking FlightRadar24 the other day and saw an A380 on a Frankfurt - Heathrow service. Not sure if it was a one-off or not however!

Used for crew familiarisation purposes so I believe after the A380‘s were stood down due to the pandemic.

Ben

 

[hotelmode]

The A380 on the Frankfurt route will be adhoc. The flights are used to quickly increase crew cycles so they are ready for when all the 380's come back (whenever that may be).
It is certainly not solely for freight, A380's are awful at that.

They are solely for freight.

Its also untrue that 380s are bad for cargo. They have plenty of space unless you put 650 seats in them and then fill all of them. They also have 3 separate climate controlled holds (no other BA aircraft has this) which are great for high value perishable cargo (like vaccines for example).

 

[Ted633]

A380's have 175m3 of cargo space, a much more efficient 787-9 has 172m3. Bear in mind that BA A380's have the crew rest in the cargo hold as well, so there is actually even less space.
I wasn't saying they weren't only carrying freight, but if there was no need to increase crew hours as well, you would use a different type (I think 787's were used on Stuttgart runs a fair bit)

 

[hotel_mode]

A380's have 175m3 of cargo space, a much more efficient 787-9 has 172m3. Bear in mind that BA A380's have the crew rest in the cargo hold as well, so there is actually even less space.
I wasn't saying they weren't only carrying freight, but if there was no need to increase crew hours as well, you would use a different type (I think 787's were used on Stuttgart runs a fair bit)

It doesn’t matter how much space you have if the cargo is perishable and the holds you’re trying to put it in aren’t climate controlled. Volume does not equal value.

Stuttgart is carrying car parts. Frankfurt wasn’t.