The Airbus A380 is the largest jet airliner ever built and is the world's first full double-deck passenger aircraft. First flight took place from Toulouse, France on 27 April 2005 and led to a flight test programme involving five Airbus A380s. The Airbus A380 is truly a giant. It has a wingspan of 261.8 feet (79.8 meters), a length of 239.5 feet (73 meters) and a maximum take-off weight of more than 1.2 million pounds (540,000 kg). The A380 features an advanced version of the Airbus common two crew cockpit, with pull-out keyboards for the pilots, extensive use of composite materials such as GLARE (an aluminium/glass fibre composite), and four 302 to 374kN (68,000 to 84,000lb) class Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance (General Electric/Pratt & Whitney) GP7200 turbofans now under development.
Airbus A380 is so huge that airports have to be redesigned to accommodate it. It can pack in more passengers and cargo than any other commercial airliner, yet its designer's claim it will actually increase efficiency, use less fuel and generate less noise. The first airline to operate the aircraft was Singapore Airlines. The first aircraft delivered (MSN003, registered 9V-SKA) was handed over to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered into service on 25 October 2007 with an inaugural flight between Singapore and Sydney (flight number SQ380).Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction paying between $560 and $100,380.Two months later, Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng said that the A380 was performing better than both the airline and Airbus had anticipated, burning 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline's existing 747-400 fleet.Emirates was the second airline to take delivery of the A380 on 28 July 2008 and started flights between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008.Qantas followed on 19 September 2008, starting flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008.By the end of 2008, 890,000 passengers had flown on 2,200 A380 flights totaling 21,000 hours.
In February 2009 the millionth A380 passenger flying with Singapore Airlines was recorded. In May 2009 it was reported that the A380 had carried 1.5 million passengers during 41 thousand flight hours and 4200 flights. Air France received their first A380 on 30 October 2009, arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The Cost of Greatness
Airbus has spent an estimated $15 billion on the development of the A380. The price for a single plane is listed at $300 million. Industry experts point out that airlines rarely pay full list price, especially if they order large numbers of planes, so it is difficult to determine exactly how many planes Airbus needs to sell to recoup the development costs. It's important to remember that a new airplane design will be modified and upgraded for decades -- Airbus has said that it's looking toward 2020 in designing the A380. The Boeing 747 has been flying since 1970.