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Current Events » in reply to re: cost per passenger seat

Air freight is an interesting angle
Gary — (archived)

Fox said"

"UPS and FedEx have ordered 10 each. Now all they need is airports big enough to land them in . . . but they apparently have 5 years before the first delivery."

Retrofitting airports catering to air freight for the A380 should not be that difficult or expensive. Air freight might(?) be the salvation of the A380. Is the profit margin for air freight significantly larger than passenger transport? Is the A380 significantly cheaper on a kilogram-km/liter-of-kerosene basis for freight than a 747-400?

The economics of commerical aviation is a very subtle art. I know guys who received Ph.D.s on the topic. During a dinner conversation with one of them, I was told there is no economic basis for going faster than Mach 5 in commerical aviation because the Earth is too small. Another expert told me that Mach 2.7 was the sweet spot for High Speed Civil Transport (a now abandoned field of aeronautics). Supposably that sweet spot has a very narrow window, e.g. going faster than Mach 3.0 or slower than Mach 2.4 and all your profit goes away.

Gary

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