After making its first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney,it has now made its way to London.An A380,the world's largest aircraft, touched down at London's Heathrow Airport Tuesday afternoon,completing the plane's first-ever commercial flight to Europe.Singapore Airlines Flight SQ308 took off from Changi airport in Singapore at 9:19 am Tuesday and arrived in London at around 2:50 pm after 13 and a half hours in the sky (Britain is a day late from Singapore) about 15 minutes ahead of schedule.There were 449 passengers on board.
The flight was widely anticipated by Britain,just as it was when it landed in Sydney and when it landed for the first time in Singapore.And which country wouldnt? It is always great to see something big as the superjumbo coming to your city.When it landed in Australia,it was greeted by the then Australian Prime Minister,John Howard,while yesterdays event was greeted by British aviation minister Jim Fitzpatrick and business minister Pat McFadden,both who were very impressed with the A380.McFadden said that the plane was quieter and cleaner than existing commercial aircraft.Now many people agree with this but they also argued that the environmental benefits of the high-capacity plane will be outweighed by rising demand for air travel.The A380,as tall as a seven-story building,can seat more than 800 passengers in an all-economy class configuration.Singapore Airlines has opted for 471 seats in three classes; 12 Singapore Airlines suites,60 business class and 399 economy class seats.Each luxury suite is equipped with sliding doors,a 58-centimeter (23-inch) LCD TV,a full bed and a leather seat.Two of the suites can be joined to provide double beds.So you can somehow imagine how spacious the luxury suite is.It feels like having your own private room and bed on the sky.
Singapore Airlines took delivery of the jet,the carrier's third,at the Airbus delivery center in Toulouse,France,last Tuesday and will fly it daily between Singapore and London.It has also deployed its two other A380s on daily services between Singapore and Sydney.It has firm orders for a further 16 such planes.SIA will also start flying another A380 jet,its fourth and yet to be delivered,on its Singapore-Tokyo route from May 20.The A380's first commercial flight was in October last year.Its development by Airbus was plagued by serious cost overruns and and delivery delays of as much as two years.Dubai-based Emirates will become the second airline with the plane when it takes its first delivery in August.
Its great to see that everything is going well for the A380 after the problems they had sometime ago with the delays and everything.But I think everything is going very smoothly now.I was really anticipating its delivery to Singapore Airlines but I was disappointed when they announced there is going to be a delay.So when the time came,I couldnt be more pleased.It is such a beautiful and amazing aircraft.I dont think there will be no other aircraft there will be bigger than this but you never know.I have never hop in into one of them,but I have seen them up close during the recent Singapore Air Show.It was super huge,you got to see it for yourself to realise how huge it really is.One thing I might point out is that the A380 hasnt been very popular with the various airlines because they think that it will be waste of space and money because it is so huge they dont know if they can fill every seats,so they are not taking the risk.In a way that is true,but if you are buying it,then you should use it for flights to popular destination,just like what SIA has done with Sydney and now London.Ive seen the suites before and I have to say,it looks really impressive.If I have the money,I would buy a ticket to any destination with the A380 right now.Airbus and Singapore Airlines have shown us once again why the are one of the best in the business.Here hoping for the success of A380 for the future.
*The report is taken from CNN.
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