Come fly with me - at last
By Kevin Done
Published: October 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 20 2007 03:00
Flying on the Airbus A380 superjumbo, dubbed the new "queen of the skies" as it seeks to end the long-held reign of the Boeing 747, will be the most exclusive experience commercial air travel has to offer for many months to come. From October 28, you have a choice of only one route, Singapore to Sydney, and a choice of only one carrier, Singapore Airlines.
After the years of hype about how the world's biggest commercial passenger jet will radically change the flying experience, and all the heartache of Airbus's inability to deliver the plane on time, the day has finally arrived.
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The first scheduled service is due to take off next Sunday from Singapore's Changi airport. The first passengers, though, will be bidders at a charity auction who will fly on the same route to and from Sydney this Thursday. One bidder paid $100,380 to sample one of the carrier's first-class suites.
For those who can wait, Singapore will finally receive a couple more A380s in the first few months of next year, allowing the airline to bring the superjumbo on to its route to London Heathrow in February or March. By May, its fourth A380 should be flying from Singapore to Tokyo.
Due to severe problems fitting the 530km of wiring needed to run the systems on each aircraft, Airbus is having to hand-build the early A380s. As a result, it will be August before other carriers, Emirates and Qantas, receive their first deliveries. Emirates, the fast-growing Dubai-based carrier, has 55 on order, Qantas 20 and Singapore 19. It will be 2010 before Airbus reaches the planned production rate of four a month, barring further hold-ups.
So, for the moment, Singapore Airlines has the field to itself. Chew Choon Seng, the carrier's chief executive, was all smiles this week at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse as he led the way aboard the world's first double-decker airliner, to show for the first time how his airline has made use of the unique amount of space offered by the A380.
The flying experience of passengers promises to be different but not that different. Forget the scares about being caught in a crush of many hundreds of passengers. Although the A380 has been certified through evacuation tests for up to a staggering 853 passengers, Singapore Airlines has fitted 471 seats in three classes - 12 in first class, 60 in business (all on the upper deck) and 399 in economy (split between the decks). That is almost 100 more than the 375-seat lay-out on its Boeing 747-400s, which will gradually be phased out of service.
Qantas is equipping its A380s with 450 seats in four classes: first, business, premium economy and economy. Emirates plans to operate three versions for different routes ranging from a 489-seat, three-class lay-out for long haul flights, a 517-seat spread across three classes and a high density 644-seat for two-class configurations for medium-range flights.
For Singapore Airlines, "the pièce de resistance ," says Chew, is the first-class suite. It is offering the opportunity to create the first double bed on a commercial jet as it sets out to reinvent the concept of luxury air travel. Eight of the suites are beside windows, but four are between the aisles, and for each pair the central partition can be lowered to produce the double bed.
Each of the 12 suites in first class is a private compartment with sliding doors, reaching up to about shoulder height, and fabric screens.
The double bed lay-out received a romantic presentation at this week's unveiling - red petals were scattered across the cream sheets and there was a tray on the bed cover with champagne and a bowl of strawberries.
The privacy offered is only relative, however. Air safety regulations determine that cabin crew can check on the well-being of their passengers and see if they are observing safety rules - such as not smoking in bed, even in first class - and the fabric blinds at the windows of the compartments have two discreet see-through gauze panels.
But Singapore Airlines has at least achieved part of Sir Richard Branson's vision for A380 travel at Virgin Atlantic, which takes its first A380s in 2013. He famously suggested he could offer both double beds and an onboard casino so that his passengers could get lucky twice.
Singapore Airline's new first class enhancements come at a price: a premium of 20-25 per cent above its first class fares on other aircraft.
The suites provide the marketing magic but Singapore Airlines has adopted a hard-headed business approach generally to the use of space on the superjumbo. There are no duty-free shops, casinos, exercise gyms, showers or bowling alleys as suggested in the wilder hype of the A380's initial marketing.
"The reality is that we are all commercial enterprises," says Chew. "We must look at the revenue-generating opportunities of the floor space. We could not find [enough] customers willing to pay to justify not having seats and instead having space [for] common use. The first Boeing 747s had lounges and bars on their upper decks but it was not long before all the airlines put seats up there and began generating revenue."
In business class, Singapore Airlines is also raising the stakes. All the seats are forward facing, have aisle access and unrivalled space, with a length of 76in and a width of 34in making them comfortable flatbeds.
Each business class seat has a 15.4in LCD screen with USB ports, in-seat power, designer bedding, dining ware by Givenchy and an enlarged dining table.
Back in economy, where most travellers will experience the A380 first, the new seats, designed of lighter, thinner materials, provide more legroom.
With a maximum take-off weight of 560 tonnes, the A380 is the giant of the skies but, at take-off, it has half the noise of the Boeing 747-400.
On a test flight this year, cruising at 41,000ft above the Pyrenees and along the west coast of France, the most noticeable difference was the quiet and calm on board. You don't have to raise your voice to carry on a conversation during take-off and, later on in the flight, it was almost disconcerting to hear conversations from the other side of the cabin.
And despite all that extra space in all three cabins and the sense of quiet, if you really still cannot get to sleep at night, there are 100 films, 180 TV programmes and a library of 700 music CDs on the inflight entertainment system. If you want to to stretch your legs, a spiral staircase at the back links the economy class cabins on the two decks. The first A 380s may not have a gym, as the early hype suggested, but this is ultimately a double-decker airliner and it comes with its built-in stairmaster, whichever class you happen to be in.
Kevin Done is the FT's aerospace correspondent
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Asia's airports operate with flying colours
By Raphael Minder
Published: October 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 20 2007 03:00
On Thursday, there could be a scramble to reach gate F31 at Changi airport in Singapore, where passengers will board the first commercial flight of the new Airbus A380.
But for those who can contain their excitement and choose instead to kick off this historic day for world aviation with a gentle stroll around Changi, there are reasons to be impressed by the airport itself.
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Almost 26 years since its opening, Changi continues to collect almost every prize bestowed on airports by the tourism and travel industries (last year alone it grabbed another 25 of these eclectic awards). More silverware should soon be on the way, as Changi prepares to open in January a third, state-of-the-art terminal, as well as to upgrade the original terminal.
Changi, however, is not the only Asian airport to excel. In fact, recently it was beaten to the top spot by Hong Kong in the closely watched survey of passenger satisfaction conducted by Skytrax, the aviation research organisation. Overall, Asian airports took four of the top five positions in the Skytrax survey, with Seoul Incheon and Kuala Lumpur completing the Asian triumph. Munich, at number four, was their leading challenger while Vancouver, which ranked ninth, was the only North American airport in the top 10.
The 7.8m passengers surveyed by Skytrax put ease of airport usage and waiting times at the top of their list of priorities, with a focus on the efficiency of security checks at a time of heightened concern about terrorism. On that level, it is very hard to fault Changi, which operates a decentralised screening system, with all the checking done at individual gates, thereby avoiding the long queues and bottlenecking that has become one of the most irksome aspects of travelling through many of the world's largest airports.
As with almost every aspect of the airport, the Singaporean authorities did not wait for the aftermath of 9/11 to adopt a decentralised screening approach, which requires more staff but makes the process smoother for passengers. "It's really always been our philosophy to do things well ahead of the demand," says Esther Ee from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.
While that might sound like a tired marketing cliché, it is a view endorsed by most pundits and is consistent with the history of Changi's development since 1975, when the Singaporean government agreed to build a new airport. In fact, even the decision to have a third terminal was part of the original master plan for Changi, at a time when Singapore Airlines - a product of the political divorce between Malaysia and Singapore - was still in its infancy and Singapore's traffic was just a fraction of what it is today.
Tony Davis, chief executive of Tiger Airways, which is based in Singapore and is one of Asia's fastest growing low-cost carriers, sees a contrast between airport planning in Asia and the "piecemeal approach" in Europe. Davis, a former BMI British Midland executive, says: "European airports have tended to be built when demand arises while Asian airports seem to be built for the future. We build on the basis on what is needed and then get very surprised two years later when we find we need to build again."
Another case in point is Kuala Lumpur's decision to add a low-cost terminal to help develop AirAsia, the region's biggest budget carrier. Derek Sadubin, chief operating officer at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney-based consultancy, says: "The Malaysians were very quick at identifying AirAsia's requirements and it shows how some of these Asian airports have been excellent in their long-term planning for the growth that is coming. You're seeing this now in the Middle East."
To be fair to Europeans, however, the building process has also been eased in Asia by the fact that some of the airports have been built on reclaimed land - triggering less debate over planning permission - and generally from scratch. Hong Kong opened its new airport on Lantau island in 1998, but has already lost its new-kid-on-the-block status to several other important transit airports in cities such as Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. In China, meanwhile, 73 airports are under construction and a further 134 projects are being considered.
Stephen Miller, chief executive of Oasis, one of the five airlines that is using the second terminal that opened in Hong Kong in June, says: "In much of Asia you have been able to start with a clean sheet and that's a huge difference. In places like Heathrow or Frankfurt, it's been about just adding on."
Asian airports such as Hong Kong and Singapore, where flying occurs around the clock, have also developed their transit business, in part by working hard to promote outside activities for passengers with several hours to kill between flights. Hong Kong recently opened a golf course within walking distance of the airport, while anybody facing a five-hour wait in Changi might consider one of the free guided tours of the city-state that have long been on offer.
Sadubin from CAPA says: "Airports in this region have generally been part of a broader national economic and tourism strategy. Singapore is the model that has been replicated and used by several other governments."
Another feature in both Singapore and Hong Kong is what could be deemed the democratisation of its more luxurious facilities, with access to premium lounges as well as activities such as swimming or fitness training open to anybody with a credit card rather than only upper-class passengers.
Fiona Song, business officer for Plaza Premium, a company that runs paying lounges across Asia, expects the concept to gain popularity in regions such as North America, where Plaza Premium now operates in Vancouver. "I also really think that it makes for better lounges,'' she argues. "People who pay for something are more demanding and expect better services, otherwise they don't come back."
Raphael Minder is an FT correspondent based in Hong Kong
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
A long-haul flight
By Claire Wrathall
Published: October 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 20 2007 03:00
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On the flight deck, we have Captain Greg, who's contemplating the end of his career as he frets about his health, assisted by tyro first officer Dan. The passengers are in the capable hands of (increasingly flying phobic) cabin manager Selina. Then there's Nigel, the purser in first class, resigned to the fact that he will never see promotion but taking vicarious pleasure in the affluence of those he looks after. There's contentedly unambitious Wendy and a cast of other crew in lesser cabins such as Becky, who "knows some hosties wear wedding rings so they at least appear married or, as someone once told her, because it attracts pilots".
No one has a surname in Henry Sutton's determinedly undramatic but meticulously observed novel Flying , a kind of literary Air Babylon, about the crew of an aircraft as it flies between Heathrow and JFK. The plot is mostly incidental but a succession of interior monologues reveals not just the crews' characters and the tensions between them, but a lot about the logistics of flying - the cloud forms, the coordinates, the radio dialogue between pilots and air traffic control and the minutiae of life on board. Air stewarding may seem like a routine occupation but staff know neither where they'll be going, nor who their colleagues will be, nor which cabin they'll be assigned to when they report for a shift. This uncertainty is aggravated by the jet lag, disorientation and exhaustion that goes with the job, not to mention the sense of responsibility a small underpaid team can feel in overseeing nearly 400 passengers.
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But if there's a lot in Flying to make one sympathise with cabin crew, there are equally details you would probably rather not know. Not least that "there used to be this fad when everyone, the girls as well as the guys, held contests to see how many rolls they could get into their knickers after they'd been warmed - the record stands at eight". Which explains, perhaps, why in economy at least, most airlines now serve packaged bread.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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