I HAD my first ride on an Airbus A380 today, and it was a delightful journey.
Alright, I admit that the trip from Sydney to Los Angeles – a "daytime" journey that takes around 14 hours – was done in a spacious business class seat, but the fact I was travelling in an aircraft that’s been designed to lessen the impact of long-haul travel also had something to do with it.
The most obvious benefit was the noise level and, unlike a 747 which assaults the ears with the constant white-noise hum of engines and air-conditioners, the A380 is so quiet.
I sat next to a senior Qantas staffer who told me the company had to retrain the A380 cabin crews after the aircraft first joined the Flying Kangaroo fleet because established routines suddenly made a lot of noise on this quiet aircraft.
The crews reduced the number of times they walked through a cabin after the lights were turned off and everyone settled down to sleep, because the sound of feet on the cabin floor were suddenly very loud and distracting.
Flight attendants had to lower their voices when talking in the galley, not use the main stairs during the flight because it distracted the passengers sitting in the first-class cabin at the front of the plane’s lower level, and even be careful about how they place cutlery on a tray during the meal service.
To give you an idea just how quiet the cabin was, I didn’t think to use my noise-cancelling headphones to listen to my iPod.
The Qantas staffer who told me about the crew retraining also said the airline has discovered that regular flyers, particularly businesspeople that make regular long-haul journeys, make travel arrangements to guarantee they fly on the double-decker A380 rather than the older 747s.
I can see why, and now will be doing the same thing myself, if for no other reason than to relieve my eardrums during a long international hop.