On this day...A380's turn

cyrusdvirus

As steyr has mentioned, Concorde took her last flight 4 years ago. The A380 has also made it's FIRST commercial flight..

A380 superjumbo lands in Sydney



Superjumbo takes off
The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, has landed in Sydney on its first commercial flight, after a seven-hour journey from Singapore.
Singapore Airlines took delivery of the huge plane, dubbed the Superjumbo, just over a week ago. Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction.

It can carry some 850 passengers, but took about 450 to Sydney.

The superjumbo's advent ends a reign of nearly four decades by the Boeing 747 as the world's biggest airliner.

'Phenomenal'

The new aircraft suffered almost two years of delays because of a number of construction problems, but took off on time.

I have never been in anything like this in the air before in my life

Passenger Tony Elwood

One of the passengers on board, Laurence Watts, told the BBC during the flight that it was a "phenomenal" plane.

"I'm actually sitting in the economy class on the lower deck of the plane," he said.

"The most amazing thing is here you have two classes of economy, split over two decks, with stairs in between the two, which I think is a huge novelty for everyone.

"The plane itself - the space is bigger than anything you can imagine. I can look out the window to my right at the moment and I can see a wing that looks bigger than most ordinary planes."

Hundreds of staff and passengers at Singapore's Changi Airport watched it lift into the sky, snapping the moment with pocket cameras and camera phones.

Passengers paid between $560 and $100,380 to be on the inaugural flight.

"I have never been in anything like this in the air before in my life," said a fellow passenger, Australian Tony Elwood, who travelled in a private first-class suite with his wife Julie.

"It is going to make everything else after this simply awful."

Australian welcome

With the superjumbo's wing span almost the size of a football pitch, Sydney Airport has spent millions to accommodate the new plane.

To cope with the two decks of seating, it has had to construct new aero bridges.

It has also had to realign one of the taxi ways and strengthen a tunnel which runs underneath the main runway.

Singapore Airlines is now set to take delivery of a further five A380s in 2008, out of its order of 19.

In total, Airbus now has 165 firm orders for the A380, and 20 "commitments" from 15 airlines.

However, some analysts remain unconvinced that the plane will be a success.

Standard & Poor's Equity Research analyst Shukor Yusof points to the fact Airbus' US rival Boeing already has more than 700 orders for its forthcoming 787 Dreamliner.

While Airbus sees the future grow of air travel being focused on larger plans such as the A380 flying between major hubs, Boeing is aiming the mid-sized 787 at more flights between airports of all sizes.

"I see there's some demand for the A380, but it's an expensive way to address a small market," said Mr Yusof.

Boeing's 787 has also been hit by production delays, with the first deliveries now not due until the end of next year, six months behind schedule.

jmayo

Can somebody confirm how they load/unload her?
Do they use two gates or something as I would definitely not like to be in middle of that queue?

cyrusdvirus

jmayo wrote: »

Can somebody confirm how they load/unload her?
Do they use two gates or something as I would definitely not like to be in middle of that queue?

I'd prefer to be in the middle than at the end....with a full bladder......and only having 45 mins to get through Immigration in Philadelphia and catch your connecting flight!:o

According to the article Sydney have built dual layer jetways.

jmayo

gatecrash wrote: »

I'd prefer to be in the middle than at the end....with a full bladder......and only having 45 mins to get through Immigration in Philadelphia and catch your connecting flight!:o

According to the article Sydney have built dual layer jetways.

Are they going to be flying A380s into/out of Auckland?
It was bad enough when you had to get off 747 bound for LAX and have only two toilets and a sweet machine for entire flight full of passengers.
Can't imagine what it would be like for 500/600 passengers :eek:
After paying the bloody airport development fee I hope they added a few conveniences
Also gave me one more reason to see them lose in RWC.