The A380 Airport Compatibility In An Emergency

One of the recurring debates in regards to the A380 is its ability to operate in smaller airfileds. A recent AWST has shed some light on this:

The aircraft has been tested at a variety of hub airports like Frankfurt, Dubai, Singapore, Sidney, it has also been tested at smaller aircraft such as Le Bourget and Medellin. The medellin is signifigant as it represent a worst case scenario for aircraft operations, the dreaded high/hot takeoff.

Despite claims to the contrary, even with its Code F runway ranking, an A380 would have plenty of of divert spots to land on. It may not be able to take off with a full load, but it would get down safely. For that matter on trans-Pacific routes any of the ETOPS divert sites could handle the aircraft. many are former US military bases with long, hard runways.

The interesting factor in this debate is something I just found out. With its longer wing, the 747-8 also falls in the same category as the A380 aka Code F and would have to comply with the same airport/runway restrictions and the bigger jet. Boeing has so far not been able to get that changed.

Remember they tested the plane in Medellín Colombia and were going to do it in La Paz Bolivia. Neither of those airports are huge ones but are good enough to have the plane landed there...

Reread the original post dude.

Its not about landing, its about takeoff at full weight.

Whats the use of the plane being able to land on a dime if it can't takeof anymore?

Maybe you need to re-read it yourself, dude?

The way I read Freds point (and I've no doubt he'll correct me if I am wrong) is that *in an emergency situation* an A380 can divert to any of these airports and land safely. The point is that the passengers can disembark from the plane and other arrangements made for getting them on to their destination (as is normal practice with all aircraft) while the empty A380 can be recovered back to a main hub, where the maintainence facilities are located, for repair/examination.

It matters not a jot that it cannot take off again from these airports with a full load as there wouldn't be any passengers waiting to get on it as it is only there as an emergency divert, not its regular route, and no airline would want to take passengers on a faulty aircraft anyway until they could thoroughly inspect it and pass it fit again.

[edit on 3-10-2006 by waynos]

Originally posted by thematrix
Its not about landing, its about takeoff at full weight.
Whats the use of the plane being able to land on a dime if it can't takeof anymore?

It is about landing. The contention that the A380 will not be able to divert to a smaller airport is unfounded. In an emergency it can land , offload passangers, fix what is needed and take off abiet with a really light load nowhere near its MTOW