Oops: Airbus A380 requires two landing slots

[hyperD]

You should see the mess created by someone throwing up out of a storm window...!!!

[TheMonkey]

Not quite as scary as the fecking door coming open on a 172 at 3500 feet and losing the damn nav chart out of it. Fortunately I wasn't flying it.

God I ain't flying again after that one.

[hyperD]

Last time I landed anywhere it was a 25kt (gusting 30kts) crosswind beyond the recommended club crosswind for the twin Seneca II 200T I was flying. Imagine my surprise as I approached Fairoaks rwy 24 at a crab angle of over 30° angle...

New tires please....

[TheMonkey]

Last time I landed anywhere it was about £20. That was for Southend airport in a Cessna 172. Stopped off to get a McDonalds and flew back home.

[Mailman]

Landing charges are tied to aircraft weight and number of seats...so the price will be going up regardless!

Mailman

[KentPhilip]

I recon that during clear days they could reduce the gap to 5 seconds between aircraft. At the speed they travel there would still be a huge distance between planes. OK there would be the occasional crash but think of the cost savings.

I always remember the expression from Graham Cole "Always remember the two second rule" encouraging motorists to maintain a sensible stopping distance behind the guy in front.

[Joe Black]

Do I understand what interim means?, of course not. My guess though would be something along the lines of "it will get sorted out"...

Then again all it needs is the ICAO to say it requires just an extra minute landing clearance and people like BAA etc would upping the landing charges quite a bit.

[Mailman]

Do you understand what interim means?

The thing isnt even in service yet. Give it a chance, Im sure once the plane enters service the time slot thing will be resolved

Mailman

[wendigo100]

Heard a Greenhouse Party rep interviewed yesterday, about big aircraft saving fuel. He wasn't impressed because he said it might encourage more people to fly, and he'd bung up aircraft taxes so that only the rich could afford it. What a w4nker.

[Joe Black]

"The A380’s main selling point is meant to be its ability to relieve pressure at crowded airports such as Heathrow by delivering hundreds more passengers for each landing slot."

"But the A380 that landed at Heathrow had to conform to interim rules, which meant that it took up two landing slots, with an interval of more than four minutes between its arrival and the next landing."

"Unless the interim rules are relaxed, an A380 carrying 550 passengers would use up the same runway capacity as two 747s carrying 800 people. Tony Douglas, managing director of Heathrow, said: “If the A380 takes two slots it would cause a problem and airlines might not want to use it."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2187526.html

Imagine it will get sorted out, hence the oops rather than 'oh dear'. But it would certainly be funny if the guys designing it didn't think of this and ended with a plane carrying 50% more people, but only being able to fly half as often.