Tag Archives: A380

By Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Late on September 4th, 2011, the first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental rolled out of a paint hangar near Boeing’s Everett Factory in Seattle in full Lufthansa colors. This first aircraft, which will be registered as D-ABYA, will undergo stringent ground tests ahead of planned initial test flights beginning in November. As per Boeing, this first …

On May 24th, Korean Air took delivery of its first Airbus A380 superjumbo in Toulouse, France. As a special tribute, the carrier’s first A380 was presented to invited guests by 500 Airbus employees – who carried blue, white and red umbrellas to form Korean Air’s tri-colour logo. The airline has specified the most extra-spacious layout amongst the six operators of …

Senior spotter Murtaza Sattar played host to me on Friday 20th May for a day of spotting at Manchester Ringway airport in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately Murt’s claim that he could control everything but the weather, came true. It was dull, cloudy, rainy, cold, windy day. The photos were coming out very poorly, so I decided to use the Live …

Sorry for being out of action, but a combination of summer heat, irregular working hours and even more irregular eating, combined with stress and most likely some dodgy food gave me a most severe case of gastritis and left me in bed for five days. Do these conditions sound familiar to fellow frequent fliers? Yesterday, an Airbus A380 superjumbo of …

From Bangalore, the technological capital of India, the number one destination is San Francisco and the surrounding bay area, followed by Los Angeles, both in California. Good news from two behemoths of the Star Alliance, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines both of whom operate the Airbus A380 superjumbo. Lufthansa will upgrade its current daily Boeing 747-400 service to an A380 service …

Dubai based Emirates airline is the world’s largest operator of the Airbus A380 superjumbo, and has orders with Airbus S.A.S. for 90 aircraft. Airline President Tim Clark recently told Reuters in an interview. “We would like some more [Airbus A380 superjumbos] but we are going to run short of space,””120 was the baseline figure that the planners worked to get …

German carrier Lufthansa took delivery of its third Airbus A380 D-AIMC MSN044 last week. The Lufthansa “Lady Bee” is named Peking the German name for Beijing. Lufthansa will commence A380 services to the Chinese capital from Frankfurt tomorrow, September 1, 2010.

Dubai based Emirates airlines operated the first commercial A380 flight to India on July 15. It was a rain soaked day, but the excitement was palpable for this one-off flight. The flight proved the A380 capabilities of Indira Gandhi International airport at New Delhi. Now it remains to be seen if Emirates will pip Lufthansa and be the first airline …

Between October 2009 and April 2010, passengers and airlines alike, had to put up with runway closures as Mumbai Airport International Ltd. (MIAL), the operators of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) at India’s financial capital, Mumbai, re-carpeted and re-built the secondary runway 14-32. (For details on runway numbering please read this article). The runway now boasts a smoother surface, …

Dubai based Emirates Airline has increased its industry leading Airbus 380 superjumbo firm order tally to a whopping 90, by ordering a further 32 A380s from Airbus. A380 firm orders now stand at 234 from 17 customers. The order has a list price of US$ 11.5 billion but significant discounts are quite common. (Click on image for a high res …

At a glittering ceremony in Hamburg, Lufthansa has taken delivery of D-AIMA, the first of its 15 Airbus A380 superjumbos ordered. Due to production delays at airframe manufacturer Airbus S.A.S, only three more A380s will join the fleet in 2010. Lufthansa becomes the fifth airline after Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas and Air France, to introduce the A380 into service. The …

In a surprise move, German carrier Lufthansa will ignore its two largest markets, the United States and India, when commences its Airbus A380 uber-jumbo flights in couple of months. Instead, the carrier will commence its A380 services between Frankfurt and Tokyo Narita first, and then Beijing, China. Johannesburg in South Africa will be the third A380 destination for the German …

German carrier Lufthansa has a practice of naming all its aircraft after locations in Germany. Spiegel has released a photograph of Lufthansa’s first Airbus A380-800 superjumbo D-AIMA, and it appears that the German carrier is naming its soon to be inducted aircraft after its home base “Frankfurt am Main”.

New Delhi is an ideal candidate for Airbus A380 superjumbo operations as per Karl Ulrich Garnadt, member of the Lufthansa Board. The airside infrastructure with runway 29-11 at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is A380 capable and the new terminal 3 expected to be ready by late summer 2010, in time for the upcoming 2010 Commonwealth games, will be …

Following recent successful development testing, “Brake-To-Vacate” (BTV) and “Runway Overrun Warning and Prevention” (ROW/ROP) have both been approved and certified for the Airbus A380 by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). BTV is an Airbus innovation in pilot aid to ease airport congestion and improve runway turnaround time, and ROW/ROP addresses runway excursion risk at landing. Both BTV and ROW/ROP …

In what is sure to be a lavish ceremony Toulouse, France head-quartered Airbus S.A.S. will deliver to French national airline Air France the carrier’s first A380 superjumbo registration F-HPJA MSN033 at Hamburg, Germany. The A380 features the new livery of Air France which was unveiled earlier this year, but F-HPJA will not be the first aircraft to wear the new …

The first Lufthansa A380 aircraft rolled out the final assembly hangar in Toulouse on September 7th, 2009. A380-841 Manufacturer Serial Number MSN038 which is currently registered as F-WWSH will eventually be registered as D-AIMA when it is delivered to Lufthansa next year. External ground tests are being carried out before preparation activities for the first flight. In a few weeks, …

Air France has decided to auction 380 seats on each of its two inaugural flights on the Airbus A380 superjumbo, operating from Paris to New York on 20 November and from New York to Paris on 21 November 2009. This exclusive auction sale, the terms of which will be presented at a later date, will take place on the Internet …