AFP - Thursday, October
18
Countdown begins
for Airbus superjumbo's maiden commercial
flight
SINGAPORE (AFP) - - The first Airbus A380 superjumbo landed in
Singapore on Wednesday, as the countdown began for next week's
maiden commercial flight of the biggest passenger airliner ever
built.
The Singapore Airlines (SIA) jet touched down at 1040 GMT -- 10
minutes late -- at Changi Airport, where hundreds of guests in
business suits gathered for a champagne reception to welcome
it.
The A380 arrived from France where Airbus officials finally saw off
the giant plane after 18 months of delays and billions of dollars
in cost overruns.
Production problems on the double-decker behemoth embarrassed the
European manufacturer, a bitter rival of US firm Boeing, but SIA
stuck with its initial order of 10 planes and later ordered nine
more.
"This is perhaps one of the most anticipated events in aviation
history in this century," Bey Soo Khiang, the airline's senior
executive president for operations and services, told dozens of
local and foreign journalists ahead of the plane's arrival.
The A380 will make its first commercial flight on October 25
between Singapore and Sydney.
Seats on that flight were sold in a charity auction on the eBay
online marketplace. Regular service on the route begins on October
28.
The superjumbo is enormous -- each wing could hold about 72 cars,
and each plane contains more than 500 kilometres (300 miles) of
wiring. It could carry 853 passengers in an all-economy
configuration.
But in what could be a trend, Singapore Airlines has installed just
471 seats to offer more space, particularly in business and first
class.
SIA's version has 399 economy seats, 60 business seats, and a
"Suites" class of 12 compartments with 58-centimetre (23-inch)
flat-screen televisions, sheets by French designer Givenchy and a
full-length bed behind sliding doors.
"This week, the game changes and we in Singapore Airlines are very
proud to be the launch customer," Bey said.
"What you see tonight is not just a step but a quantum leap in the
standards of air travel."
Reporters were shown mock-ups of the three new cabins, complete
with SIA stewardesses in their trademark figure-hugging
uniforms.
SIA, which early on began advertising that it would be "first to
fly" the A380, had expressed disappointment with holdups in the
superjumbo.
But all was forgotten Wednesday as the airline took out full-page
advertisements in Asia to herald its Suites class and trumpet the
arrival of the plane.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, SIA chairman Stephen Lee, and
Airbus chief executive officer John Leahy were to give welcoming
speeches at the airport ceremony before the prime minister toured
the aircraft.
The A380 problems over the past two years provoked management
changes as well as a politically sensitive cost-cutting plan at
Airbus.
Even as it celebrated delivery of the A380, the European aerospace
group EADS, the parent of Airbus, announced Wednesday that delivery
of its first A400M military transport plane to the French airforce
would be delayed by at least six months.
The A380 was also recently at the centre of an insider-trading
scandal, with top managers and key shareholders suspected of
selling shares in EADS before the A380 production problems were
made public.
But 16 airlines have placed firm orders for the A380 -- which some
analysts have called a "white elephant". Dubai-based Emirates is
the leading client on a customer list of predominantly Asian,
European and Gulf-based carriers.
Airbus says the A380 will offer the lowest cost per passenger of
any airliner, will emit less carbon dioxide per passenger, and
significantly reduce takeoff and landing noise.
"The big step coming with these aircraft is the economics of it,
the efficiency of it," said Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent for
industry publication Orient Aviation.
The A380 will allow the phasing out of SIA's Boeing 747 jumbos over
the next three-to-four years, Bey said.
"More than simply a big airplane, the newest industry flagship will
change forever the way the industry operates," the Centre for Asia
Pacific Aviation consultancy said in a report.
Ballantyne said SIA will have the A380 market to itself for almost
the next year, until Australian carrier Qantas takes delivery of
its first superjumbo.
"It's a Singapore Airlines thing, being first," Ballantyne said.
"It gives them a huge marketing edge."
