Great Michael But can the aircraft land and taxi on the airport? Al ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael C. Berch" <mcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 4:27 PM Subject: Accommodating the A380 > I do know that the planners at SFO worked with both Airbus and Boeing > to try to make sure that the new International Terminal at SFO would be > able to accommodate a future superjumbo. In fact, there are two > specially-designated gates that will accommodate the A380 - one at the > end of the A Concourse, and one at the end of the G Concourse. They > have an extra-large gate holding/seating area, multiple airbridges, > etc. I took the grand-opening tour of the International Terminal in > December 2000 and they made sure to point this out. > > -- > Michael C. Berch > mcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > On Monday, December 1, 2003, at 12:05 PM, B787300@xxxxxxx wrote: > > I presume you are correct about having the Asian airlines in mind and > > it > > certainly sounds logical. However, somebody at Airbus is intelligent > > enough to > > know that the Asian carriers would want to serve LAX with the beast. > > Airbus > > should have approached the airport to see if there would be any > > problems with the > > size of the aircraft, instead of designing it first, starting > > production and > > then trying to cram it down the throats of LAX and other airports that > > simply > > don't have the spacing available between runways and runways, runways > > and > > taxiways, taxiways and taxiways, etc. > > > > Gate hold room sizes are yet another additional problem as you state. > > The > > beast will probably take up two or three gate apron areas due to the > > wingspan. > > No wonder this thing is unloved. > > > > I fail to see how shops will benefit from passengers getting off the > > A380. > > After a long-ass flight they'll want to clear Immigrations/Customs and > > get the > > hell out of the airport to a hotel to recuperate from the flight. The > > last > > thing on their minds will be shopping inside the terminal. > > > > Jose Prize > > Fan of reality >