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The Wikipedia entry for the A380 gives the maximum range at design load as 15,700 km. The equivalent entry for a Boeing 747-400 gives around 14,000 km but distances of 18,000 km have been performed in demonstrations. So I infer the ferry range for the A380 would be even higher.

Is it specified anywhere? Has a flight by an A380 in excess of 15,700 km been performed to date? Could it fly between any two suitable airports on Earth, i.e., farther than 20,038 km?

Hugh
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    When going for a long haul flight and you don't need to deliver a payload other than the plain you can install extra fuel tanks for extra range. – ratchet freak May 21 '14 at 08:53
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    A lovely interactive map shows that only New Zealand is out of range of a normally-laden non-stop A380 flight starting in Europe. Perhaps an A380 with no passengers, no luggage and no cargo can manage the few extra km. – RedGrittyBrick May 21 '14 at 09:26
  • @RedGrittyBrick Remember that Russia west of the Urals is in Europe. A range of 15,700km around Samara just includes New Zealand. – David Richerby May 21 '14 at 17:36
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    @David: Yes I should have written Toulouse rather than Europe. That's where Airbus would start any ferrying. – RedGrittyBrick May 21 '14 at 18:16
  • Adding extra fuel tanks might be useful for a 717 but the question is would it be necessary for an unladen A380? – Hugh May 21 '14 at 22:52
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    For going between "basically any two airports on earth", I think that the 777-200LR is probably the most able – markasoftware May 22 '14 at 02:26
  • @Markasoftware: but the Q is specifically about the A380 not about the GlobalFlyer or other long-range aircraft. – RedGrittyBrick May 22 '14 at 09:40
  • Be aware that Boeing has used special high energy fuel to make very long ferry flights non-stop. Presumably this fuel is also available to Airbus. The question should specify "regular" or "high test" fuel when considering range. – Skip Miller Oct 23 '14 at 21:47
  • Short answer to "Can it fly between any two airports on earth?": No, it can not. Mainly because it can not takeoff from or land at many smaller airports due to runway length and/or obstacles. – Lnafziger Oct 24 '14 at 20:57
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    @Lnafziger though the question is vague pls assume he means "any two suitable airports". You cannot hope for A380 to take off from some beach airport in carribean and land on aircraft carrier. – vasin1987 Oct 26 '14 at 15:32
  • @vasin1987 "Suitable" is a bit problematic though because there are many airports that can be used by the A380 (and therefore suitable) but could not be used when taking off for a maximum range flight. Using only airports that they could use for this purpose would severely limit the choices. – Lnafziger Oct 26 '14 at 15:40

3 Answers3

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You have asked several questions. I'll try to answer them in order to clarify.

Is the ferry range specified anywhere?

From the Airbus website, we find for the Engine Alliance GP7000 engine option the ferry range is ~9,600 NM. Let's just say it's 9,500 NM.

A: 9,500 NM. Also, waiting for the right trade winds can increase you range.

Can an A380 fly between any two airports on Earth?

If you place the originating marker over Dubai, UAE, then the A380-800 can fly to any airport on Earth except a region in South Pacific Ocean. This area (a circle of around 6500 km diameter) has many small island states (French Polynesia, Cook Island, American Samoa etc.).

enter image description here
(gcmap.com)

A: Yes, probably over 99% of airports.

Has a flight by an A380 in excess of 15,700 km been performed to date?

None that I could find. The longest flight of A380 (currently) is QF 8 (with duration 16:50 hours).

We know that A380 (October 25, 20071) is much newer than 777 (June 7, 19952) and 747 (January 22, 19703). In future, there can be attempts to fly it in excess of 15,700 km.

A: No record so far.

What is the ferry range of an A380?

This was your original question. Most of the flights mentioned on the Wikipedia article you referred to were either delivery flights or for demonstration purposes. For such flights, you can have:

  1. lesser people on board
  2. lesser equipment (seats etc.) so more space to add extra fuel tanks

With the above two changes, the result would be:

  • Less people = Less weight. The aircraft will weigh less and its range can increase.
  • Less seats = Less weight. The aircraft will weigh less and its range can increase.
  • More space to add fuel tanks. The aircraft's range will increase.

In addition, A380-800 has cargo volume of 6500 cubic feet. If we have a hypothetical rubber tank which fills all this space, we can add 184,000+ L of additional fuel than the original capacity of 323,546 L. This can increase the range over 50%.

This website contains pictures of additional fuel tanks. As you can see, those are inflatable and can adjust to the space available.

A: It depends.

1: Introduction with Singapore Airlines
2: Introduction with United Airlines
3: Introduction with Pan American World Airways

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Farhan
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  • This is a really comprehensive and well analysed answer, +1. – shortstheory Jun 18 '14 at 15:29
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    However, I believe most commercial airplanes would use something more robust than rubber fuel tanks. And all the airplanes on that site are at the most twin-turboprop engines. I guess rubber tanks aren't too good at managing the high fuel burn rates of massive turbofans like those on the A380.

    See this picture of fuel tanks loaded up on a Boeing 717: http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/4/8/8/0148884.jpg

     – shortstheory Jun 18 '14 at 15:32
  • @shortstheory I mentioned rubber tanks hypothetically to fill up all cargo space. Your picture is nice. – Farhan Jun 18 '14 at 15:42
  • You've not answered the "any two airports" question, as your post implies a required stopover at UAE... – Jon Story Oct 24 '14 at 12:32
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    @Federico First of all, that was a hypothetical situation. If we somehow add fuel to all of the available 6500 cubic feet, it increase fuel capacity to 56.88%. Yes, the fuel weight increases aircraft weight, but at the same time we don't have any cargo weight either. – Farhan Oct 24 '14 at 13:09
  • @JonStory No, it does not imply a stopover at UAE. I said that it will originate from UAE. – Farhan Oct 24 '14 at 13:10
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    Q: Can an A380 fly between any two airports on Earth? But your answer only proves that an aircraft can get to 99% of airports from UAE, not from any other airport. – Jon Story Oct 24 '14 at 13:22
  • Oh, you're right, I did not considered that. By using the MTOW as initial weight and your fuel numbers, you get a range increase of almost 80% – Federico Oct 24 '14 at 13:23
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    If you start with the empty weight and fill it to MTOW with fuel, you only get about 12.8% more fuel than the max capacity. At least that's what I calculated. – fooot Oct 24 '14 at 14:28
  • I agree with @fooot: just because you can fill the extra space with the same volume of fuel does not mean those fuel will have the same weight as the cargo. – kevin Oct 24 '14 at 15:19
  • @JonStory OP asked that if A380 can fly between any two airports? I had to place the originating marker at some place where the vast majority of airports of the world can be reached. Of course A380 cannot circumnavigate without refueling. Not all areas of the world have the same number of airports per 100 square miles. That was the reason I placed the marker at UAE as from there, most of Earth's land area is covered and hence most of Earth's airports are covered. I hope this clarifies your question. – Farhan Oct 24 '14 at 19:36
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    But that doesn't mean the A380 can fly from anywhere in the radius you showed, to anywhere else. You can fly UAE to 99%, sure, but start placing the starting point in LESS optimal positions and you realise that there are a LOT of airports pairs that don't work. You've chosen an optimal airport which makes it look better than it is. The A380 can probably only fly between something like 80% of airport pairs, over the whole globe – Jon Story Oct 24 '14 at 19:39
  • @JonStory Stack Exchange comments are not supposed to be used to carry on chat, that is what chat is for. If you feel Farhan's answer is in error, please make your own answer. – CGCampbell Oct 26 '14 at 04:21
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    This answer, while well-researched, does not provide an answer to the question. I appreciate that an answer might not be easily accessible (or even published), but I can't accept an answer that doesn't have it. Also, "between any two airports" isn't the same as "between a particular airport and any other"; and the webmaster email isn't particularly helpful. – Hugh Dec 03 '14 at 23:30
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Q: Could it fly between any two suitable airports on Earth, i.e. further than 20038km?

A: Not likely

enter image description here

Him
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    It would be better if you interpreted the images with your own words as well. – SMS von der Tann Mar 11 '16 at 23:01
  • You could probably stretch out the range beyond what is shown on the chart by adding ferry tanks but I doubt it would make any commercial sense to do so. Designing and fitting the ferry tanks would likely cost far more than adding some fuel stops. – Peter Green Feb 02 '17 at 04:48
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    Also what's the source of the image? – Notts90 Feb 15 '17 at 21:38
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It cannot fly between any two airports for a simple reason. Any departure from an airport that is located above 2,000m (e.g. Addis Ababa) would reduce the range due to lower fuel capacity in the tanks.

Yorgos voukas
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    Could you expand on your answer a little? I'm wondering whether your meaning is that because of the high altitude there would be a takeoff weight restriction that precluded filling the tanks or whether that even with full tanks there is a fuel density factor. – Terry Aug 14 '15 at 18:22
  • This concern I've tried to capture in the qualification "suitable airports", by which I mean airports which can handle an A380. Obviously airports with no long runway, or which are too high, or which are only designed for seaplanes or helicopters would not be suitable... – Hugh Aug 14 '15 at 23:54
  • there is no "suitable airport" qualification in your answer. – Federico Aug 15 '15 at 06:03