USA TODAY

Superjumbo lord of the skies; biometrics on rise

November 18, 2003
By Noah Barkin, Reuters

PARIS — In the grounds of the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, southwestern France, there is a gleaming glass and steel building. Enter, and you'll get a glimpse of what the European plane maker calls the future of aviation.

There, dwarfing life-size models of other Airbus planes, sits a mock-up of the massive A380 superjumbo jet, a 555-seat plane that airlines will begin flying in 2006.

Airbus built the replica to wow prospective clients and show that the A380 is like no other plane in the skies today.

A huge staircase, reminiscent of a cruise ship, links two full-size decks. A stylish duty-free shop adjoins a spacious bar area, replete with luxurious leather lounge chairs. Airbus says the A380 is large enough to include on-board spas, gyms or casinos.

But with security threats, weak economic growth and corporate cost-cutting contributing to an unprecedented decline in traffic and airline profits over the past few years, big carriers are more than ever focused on the bottom line.

That means many of the airlines ordering the A380 — Airbus has so far won firm orders from eight companies for 116 of the planes — are likely to think twice before filling their superjumbos with space-consuming extras.

Watching the cost

What appears to be attracting carriers to the A380 is not an overwhelming urge to equip their planes with spas, but the promise of lower operating costs.

Airbus says the A380 will cost airlines 15% less to fly than the 747 jumbo made by U.S. rival Boeing, which itself is now developing a new super-efficient plane, dubbed the 7E7 Dreamliner.

"Images of people strolling around the lounge and having a massage on the top deck of an A380 are largely myth," says David Dodwell, executive director at consultancy Golin/Harris Forrest in Hong Kong.

"The economics of aviation are such that when an airline has to choose between getting you somewhere cheaply and giving you the space to have an enjoyable, comfortable experience, they will opt for the former."

Indeed, the success of discount carriers, such as Britain's Easyjet and Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, during the recent downturn has driven home the message to major airlines that air travel is shifting from luxury goods to mass-market commodity.

Travelers willing to pay increasingly high prices for comfort can look forward to more frills, like those that Airbus envisions for its A380. But for the average passenger, aviation experts say the future is tighter seats and additional fees for services that used to be taken for granted.

This dual trend is evident at Virgin Atlantic, the airline run by flamboyant British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and known for its innovative approach to service.

In July, Virgin introduced its Upper Class Suite — a costly new upmarket service that offers a private onboard bar, massage room and what the airline calls the longest fully flat airplane bed in the world.

Around the same time, the airline also began charging economy class passengers an additional $80 for the extra leg room they get when sitting in an emergency exit row.

At other airlines in the United States and Europe, new fees for food, drinks and even paper tickets are on the rise as airlines try to eke more profit out of each passenger.

"You don't expect to be served a free meal on a train and in the future the same will be true on an airplane," says Keith McMullen of London consultancy Aviation Economics.

"You will see a continuing commoditization of the industry, driven by low-cost carriers."

Some experts believe the trend may evolve to the point where economy and premium passengers are flying in different planes, increasingly from different airports.

Long waits at large hub airports, due to higher security and overcrowded conditions, are already leading some time-strapped business travelers to seek out alternatives.

The German airline Lufthansa recently began flying 48-seat Boeing business jets from Munich and Duesseldorf in Germany to Newark, New Jersey, and Chicago in the United States.

NetJets, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has announced plans for a new trans-Atlantic service that would link small private airports outside cities like London and New York.

The NetJets service is aimed at former passengers of the supersonic Concorde, retired this year by Air France and British Airways after three decades in the air.

Even though it would use small Gulfstream jets that take twice as long as Concorde to cross the Atlantic, by landing at private airports like RAF Northolt outside London and Teterboro in New Jersey it promises much shorter waits and fewer security worries.

"Increasingly, you could see people flying in different planes depending on the level of service they want and how much they are willing to pay," says Dan Solon, a Barcelona-based analyst at aviation consultants Avmark International.

British Airways chief executive Rod Eddington has predicted a "significant gap" before the next generation of supersonic aircraft is built.

And experts say the problem of the sonic boom must be overcome first, something which could take many years.

Because of noise concerns, regulators did not allow the Concorde to fly at supersonic speed over land, limiting its route potential.

"We have to see a leap in technology for supersonic travel to return," says Jon Ash, managing director at Washington-based consultant Global Aviation Associates.

Where technology does offer some hope in the short term is in airports, which have been under substantial pressure to ramp up security since the September 2001 attacks.

Biometrics

In the United States, Congress has passed legislation mandating that all visas issued to foreign visitors starting in October 2004 contain body-recognition technology known as biometrics.

And airports across the globe are exploring the introduction of biometric systems which can identify passengers passing through security check-points by scanning their eyes, faces or fingerprints.

Samir Nanavati, a partner at the New York-based International Biometric Group, predicts that within a decade or two, the technology will be sophisticated enough to monitor passengers at each step of the airport process — when they arrive, when they check their bags, when they pass through security and when they enter the plane.

But he is less optimistic about the technology's potential for slashing airport waiting times, saying the challenge for airports is to deploy the systems without increasing the wait for passengers.

Aeroports de Paris (ADP) is aiming to introduce the first biometric checks for airport personnel by the end of this year. In parallel, it is examining a pilot program that would permit a select group of passengers holding biometric cards to glide through security more rapidly.

A similar system has been up and running at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport since October 2001. Under the Privium program, frequent users of the airport pay a fee to have their eyes photographed and undergo a security check with the Dutch border police.

They then receive a card with the biometric imprint of their iris. Each time they pass through the airport, they use special fast-track border checks with iris scan machines that match card to passenger.

Experts view the fast-track option as a manageable first step in what is expected to be widespread introduction of biometrics over the coming decade, as airports struggle to cut delays and tighten security while passenger numbers rise.

Airbus expects traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles, to increase 5% annually over the next 20 years. At that pace, one year's increase in traffic 20 years from now would be equal to total world traffic back in 1969, when the 747 jumbo began flying.

Adam Brown, vice president of market forecasts at Airbus, expects larger planes like the A380 to handle some of this growth.

But most of the burden will fall on already crowded airports and stretched air traffic controllers, struggling to funnel increasing numbers of passengers from one city to the next. "That will be a huge challenge," Brown says.