According to the BBC news, the overall cost of terminal 5 is about 9 billion dollars ; the cost of pier 6 which is solely for docking 4 A-380's is about $211 million, and then other work to allow the use of the 380 cost in excess of $682 million dollars. This included : "Runways had to be resurfaced, lighting upgraded and taxiways changed in preparation for the A380."

Now, that doesn't mean that other aircraft don't see some benefit from better lighting, surfaces, etc - but at least according to the BBC this work was necessary in order for LHR to accept & support the 380.

I'm not trying to knock the aircraft with the above - just wondering what the REAL cost/benefit analysis comes out to. Kinda like when one of my work-mates boasted about how much money he was saving with his Toyta Prius ... looking only at the mpg figures he has me beaten, but when we factored in him paying well over sticker price to get it, and what the actual per-year cost is including depreciation etc., I would have had to travel tens of thousand of miles further than he in order to have the same REAL costs over the 4 year period that each of us tends to keep his car.

I have no idea how the lifetime of a runway & taxiway surfaces varies according to the traffic - does one extra heavy aircraft contribute more or less wear & tear / damage than two smaller aircraft carrying the same # passengers ? Hopefully someone has done the math(s), so I'm simply nosey about where the break-even point for some of the investment is anticipated to be. (Note "anticipated", since things like fuel costs 3 years from now probably can't be reliably estimated).

From a purely personal point of view though, my 'make or break' point for whether I would choose to fly on a 380 or something smaller, is currently less to do with it's operating costs than what the "time" costs would be associated with it. I already do several flights where it takes longer to get everyone on and off the plane and then get my luggage than it takes to fly to where I am going. The 380 promises to exaccerbate these problems to an unacceptable level if the airports' solutions for more 'peaked' passenger traffic are inadequate, so I will be watching with interest to see how well these issues have been addressed in general, and how various new airline policies make the issues better or worse. (e.g. United's stupid policy of charging for a second check-in bag ... all this means is that more & more people will try to carry on ridiculously oversized bags in addition to their 3 existing bags, 2 guitar cases and 3 boxes of live maine lobster ; as a result, people will be slower to board as they hunt for space and stow all those extra bags.)

Gordon