British Airways to invest £5 billion in a super jumbo future

British Airways has ordered 12 of the world’s roomiest aircraft, the Airbus A380, and 24 Boeing 787s - and is on track to be the first airline to have both aircraft types in its fleet.

Construction has begun on BA’s first super jumbo, the Airbus A380, due for delivery in 2013. Routes for the airline’s first A380 and B787 Dreamliner are to be announced.

Keith Williams, British Airways’ chief executive said: “We are really excited that work has started on building the first of our 12 Airbus A380s.

“They represent a significant part of a huge investment by British Airways, of five billion pounds over the next five years in new aircraft, smarter cabins, elegant lounges, and new technologies to make life more comfortable in the air and on the ground.

“Our teams across the airline have been working in partnership with Airbus to ensure that preparations are well under way for us to receive this pioneering and leading-edge aircraft, so that it goes smoothly into service for British Airways for the first time next year [2013].

“Until then, we will continue working towards the successful delivery of both the A380 and B787, to ensure our customers have a fantastic flying experience on these amazing aircraft,” added Williams.

The A380 is the largest civil aircraft ever made, with a maximum seating capacity of 853 compared with 660 in a Boeing 747 jumbo.

The A380 is a mainly European but also transatlantic project. Each A380 consists of about four million individual components with 2.5 million part numbers produced by 1,500 companies from 30 countries across the globe.

The first parts of BA’s A380 to be constructed are the forward fuselage and the aft fuselage sections that are being assembled and equipped in Hamburg, Germany. The aircraft’s two passenger decks have a total area the same as three tennis courts

Other parts of the fuselage such as the nose and the centre sections are being assembled in Saint Nazaire and Meaulte in France, as well as the tailfin in Stade (Germany), while the horizontal tail plane is manufactured in Spain.

Meanwhile, the undercarriage is being assembled in Canada and France, and the wings are being made at Broughton in Lancashire, and the Rolls-Royce engines in Derbyshire, both in the United Kingdom.

Dedicated teams across British Airways are working behind the scenes for the entry into service of both the A380 and B787 Dreamliner later in 2013.

The Dreamliner is a super-efficient long-haul airplane that brings big-jet ranges to mid-size airplanes, for example carrying 250-290 passengers on routes of 8,000-8,500 nautical miles (14,800-15,750 kilometres). The 787’s fuel efficiency results in exceptional environmental performance.

The airplane is claimed to use 20 per cent less fuel than today’s similarly sized airplanes. New engines from General Electric and Rolls-Royce are used on the 787. Advances in engine technology are the biggest contributor to overall fuel efficiency improvements.

BA’s preparation work has involved teams from engineering, flight operations, cabin and flight crew, customer services, ground and airport operations, marketing, IT, strategy and planning to ensure both aircraft move swiftly into service.

The airline has completed the latest phase of a multi-million pounds redevelopment of its Heathrow engineering base, west London to prepare for the arrival of the fleet of A380s, B787s and Boeing 777-300s.

This included a new 24-tonne roof “eyebrow” that was lifted into place in one of the aircraft hangars and raised the height of the entrance to accommodate the A380’s 24-metre tailfin.

BA completed the latest trials by using an A380 superjumbo flown in by Airbus to put the hangar through its paces.

The hangars were built in the early 1950s and were listed as important historic buildings by English Heritage in 1995. Adapting these landmarks required great care and skill to preserve the internal unsupported arches that were designed by Sir Evan Owen Williams, Britain’s most significant innovator in the early use of structural concrete and a pioneer in the development of concrete architecture.

At nearly 23 metres high the hangars could easily accommodate the Boeing 747 jumbos, but with the arrival of 12 A380s from next year the entrance to two hangars needed to be raised by another 3.5m to accommodate the larger tail fin.

The redevelopment has involved the introduction of 138 tonnes of additional steel and strengthening to create an “eye brow” truss to form the remodelled opening. The single largest piece of steel reinforcement - the “eye” piece - weighs 24 tonnes. More than 30,000 welding rods weighing about 1.5 tonnes were used creating more than four kilometres of linear welds.

Vance Williamson, BA’s head of property services, said: “The combined efforts and contribution from the property and engineering management teams, together with the professional construction expertise of Mace, have provided British Airways with a high quality, long-term aircraft maintenance facility for many years to come.”