Boeing too heavy for Orly ?

[Kip Powick]

ADP said the B777-300ER, a new version of the Boeing 777, was lighter than the Boeing 747 or the Airbus A380 jumbo jet, but its mass was centered on 12 wheels compared with 22 for the A380.

Boeing Co.’s B777-300ER airplane could damage the runways of Paris’s Orly airport by exerting too much pressure, especially at take-off, Paris airports operator Aeroports de Paris said

MondayAir France KLM has ordered seven such planes -- an investment of more than $1.28 billion -- to replace its Boeing 747 planes and fly from Orly to France’s overseas territories in the summer of 2007, La Tribune newspaper reported.

ADP said the B777-300ER, a new version of the Boeing 777, was lighter than the Boeing 747 or EADS’s upcoming Airbus A380 jumbo jet, but its mass was centered on 12 wheels compared with 22 for the Airbus A380.

Such concentrated pressure could ruin the runways, ADP said.

ADP said it had begun discussions with Air France to find a solution.

The cost of strengthening the runways could be high and the work lengthy, La Tribune said. For Air France, switching overseas territories flights to Paris’s Roissy airport could cannibalize some future expected capacity, La Tribune said.

[13820]

Sounds fishy to me. There are probably some 6 wheel A/C that are about the same per wheel weight when loaded. I wonder when US airports will start announcing that the A380 is too large to land at any if it's airports.

[Airband]

The cost of strengthening the runways could be high......

Oh I dunno, they got all that salvage rebar sitting around from 2E.

[J.O.]

I wonder when US airports will start announcing that the A380 is too large to land at any if it's airports.

Actually, that's already happened. I believe it was ATL that said they would make none of the changes they would need to accommodate the A380.