Singapore Celebrates A380's Maiden Flight

[cdnvic]

Maiden Flight of Singapore's A380

SQ380 took off at 8 am with almost a full load of 450 passengers for the under 7-hour flight.

By Karamjit Kaur

SINGAPORE Airlines' first A380 superjumbo took off from Changi Airport at 8 am on Thursday for its maiden commercial flight to Sydney, with nearly a full load of passengers.

On board are 450 passengers, from the youngest, a 10-month-old boy, to the oldest, a 91-year-old man, who are travelling with their families, 75 journalists from all over the world, and many of the successful bidders.

Eager beavers started streaming in as early as 4.30 am when the counters opened, to check in for the historic flight on the world's largest passenger jet.

SIA, the first to operate the double-decker giant had sold 662 one-way seats to Sydney and back in a charity auction, which saw people from all around the word - 35 nationalities in all - paying anything from US$560 (S$820) for an economy seat to US$100,380 (S$147,000) for a pair of one-way suite tickets.

About four in 10 passengers are Singaporeans or Australians. The rest include Britons, Americans, Indonesians and Malaysians.

Close to $2 million was raised for charity.

Some of the passengers came dressed in special T-shirts with the A380 logo emblazoned on them.

Among those in the first class suite are Mr Julian Hayward, who paid US$100,380 for him and a friend, and Mr Thomas Lee, from California, who was a passenger on the world's first Boeing 747 commercial flight between New York and London in 1970. Flying with him are his wife and daughter.

Also onboard is Ms Isabelle Chu, a travel agent from Perth, who is flying in both directions on the A380. Ms Chu flew in both directions on the first Singapore Airlines A340-500 flights between Singapore and Los Angeles, and Singapore and New York, non-stop in 2004, with just time for shower between flights. This time, she will enjoy an overnight stopover in Sydney.

There was no show of 15 economy class passengers.

After all the passengers have boarded by about 7 am, there was a simple ribbon cutting ceremony officiated by SIA chief executive Chew Choon Seng.

He also presented a cheque for $615,000 to Ms Jennie Chua, Chairman of Singapore Community Chest. The rest of the money raised from the sale of tickets in the charity auction will go to two children's hospitals in Sydney, as well as to Medecins Sans Frontieres - also known as Doctors Without Borders - an independent medical-humanitarian organisation that offers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics and natural and man-made disasters in more than 70 countries.

The under-seven-hour flight which arrives in Sydney at about 3.30pm (Singapore time), is piloted by Captain Robert Ting, and three other pilots. There are 31 cabin crew members.

The commercial debut of the A380 - a double-decker jet as long as a soccer pitch and with a tail seven storeys high - will be remembered as the biggest thing to hit aviation in over three decades.

Not since the Boeing 747 jumbo took to the skies in 1970 and the supersonic Concorde made its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record time in 1973, has an aircraft attracted as much awe, curiosity, excitement and anticipation.

SIA, which has ordered 19 of the jets, will start daily scheduled services to Sydney from Sunday, after which it will fly the superjumbo to London, Tokyo's Narita, Hong Kong and San Francisco.

Full Story:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/...ory_170339.html

[cdnvic]

15 no-shows.

Who misses a maiden flight that's part of aviation history?

[technocracy]

15 no-shows.

Who misses a maiden flight that's part of aviation history?

Carpet-baggers . . .

[Prakanong]

I was watching the Rugby with two of the Avionics guys last week. Work for Panasonic and one has moved here from Seattle to cover the biz in Singapore for it.

The other was English and comes in from time to time.

They think its a lovely piece of kit.

Wonder when I get my first go on it?

Will be a while till they have enough planes and crew's for a European run I suppose.

[Pushit]

Maiden Flight of Singapore's A380

SQ380 took off at 8 am with almost a full load of 450 passengers for the under 7-hour flight.

By Karamjit Kaur

SINGAPORE Airlines' first A380 superjumbo took off from Changi Airport at 8 am on Thursday for its maiden commercial flight to Sydney, with nearly a full load of passengers.

On board are 450 passengers, from the youngest, a 10-month-old boy, to the oldest, a 91-year-old man, who are travelling with their families, 75 journalists from all over the world, and many of the successful bidders.

Eager beavers started streaming in as early as 4.30 am when the counters opened, to check in for the historic flight on the world's largest passenger jet.

SIA, the first to operate the double-decker giant had sold 662 one-way seats to Sydney and back in a charity auction, which saw people from all around the word - 35 nationalities in all - paying anything from US$560 (S$820) for an economy seat to US$100,380 (S$147,000) for a pair of one-way suite tickets.

About four in 10 passengers are Singaporeans or Australians. The rest include Britons, Americans, Indonesians and Malaysians.

Close to $2 million was raised for charity.

Some of the passengers came dressed in special T-shirts with the A380 logo emblazoned on them.

Among those in the first class suite are Mr Julian Hayward, who paid US$100,380 for him and a friend, and Mr Thomas Lee, from California, who was a passenger on the world's first Boeing 747 commercial flight between New York and London in 1970. Flying with him are his wife and daughter.

Also onboard is Ms Isabelle Chu, a travel agent from Perth, who is flying in both directions on the A380. Ms Chu flew in both directions on the first Singapore Airlines A340-500 flights between Singapore and Los Angeles, and Singapore and New York, non-stop in 2004, with just time for shower between flights. This time, she will enjoy an overnight stopover in Sydney.

There was no show of 15 economy class passengers.

After all the passengers have boarded by about 7 am, there was a simple ribbon cutting ceremony officiated by SIA chief executive Chew Choon Seng.

He also presented a cheque for $615,000 to Ms Jennie Chua, Chairman of Singapore Community Chest. The rest of the money raised from the sale of tickets in the charity auction will go to two children's hospitals in Sydney, as well as to Medecins Sans Frontieres - also known as Doctors Without Borders - an independent medical-humanitarian organisation that offers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics and natural and man-made disasters in more than 70 countries.

The under-seven-hour flight which arrives in Sydney at about 3.30pm (Singapore time), is piloted by Captain Robert Ting, and three other pilots. There are 31 cabin crew members.

The commercial debut of the A380 - a double-decker jet as long as a soccer pitch and with a tail seven storeys high - will be remembered as the biggest thing to hit aviation in over three decades.

Not since the Boeing 747 jumbo took to the skies in 1970 and the supersonic Concorde made its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record time in 1973, has an aircraft attracted as much awe, curiosity, excitement and anticipation.

SIA, which has ordered 19 of the jets, will start daily scheduled services to Sydney from Sunday, after which it will fly the superjumbo to London, Tokyo's Narita, Hong Kong and San Francisco.

Full Story:

<a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/...ory_170339.html" target="_blank">http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/...ory_170339.html</a>

God help us if these monsters start arriving at Suvarnapumi in numbers, it'll take two weeks to get through immigration!!

[PhilHarries]

God help us if these monsters start arriving at Suvarnapumi in numbers, it'll take two weeks to get through immigration!!

Always look on the bright side of life.............

any how, it's not "if" but "when".

[khaojao]

God help us if these monsters start arriving at Suvarnapumi in numbers, it'll take two weeks to get through immigration!!

Always look on the bright side of life.............

any how, it's not "if" but "when".

haha...how true since thailand has supposedly purchased 6 of these babies

[cdnvic]

Video of the first departure:

[Rinrada]

Looks great......

[technocracy]

Looks great......

Sure does - is it just me that thought it did not seem like it was going very fast for take off?

[peter991]

Singapore Airlines A380 encounters its first technical glitch

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Singapore Airlines was forced to cancel its flight from Singapore to Sydney on Monday night when its four-month-old A380 super jumbo was grounded, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"It was a difficult delay. A problem presented with a fuel pump, and this is the sort of problem that doesn't show till engine start-up,'' Singapore Airline’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Stephen Forshaw told The Sydney Morning Herald.

A Boeing 747-400 was later brought in to replace the grounded A380 and left Changi Airport nine hours after. The airline did not provide accommodation for the remaining 70 passengers, who were forced to wait overnight for alternative flights the following day.

“Given the time of night, we explored transferring all customers to hotels till the defect was repaired, to allow them to get some rest...Unfortunately, with the Singapore Airshow on this week, there were not sufficient hotel rooms to be able to accommodate those affected,” Forshaw said.

"We're very sorry for the inconvenience caused to customers by the long delay, and especially the nature of it, with a lack of certain departure time,'' he added.

Prior to this incident, the Singapore Airlines A380 had enjoyed a 100 per cent technical reliability rating.

Peter

[peter991]

Airbus expects Singapore Airlines to buy 15 more A380s

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

According to a report by the International Herald Tribune, Airbus is expecting Singapore Airlines to purchase 10 to 15 additional A380 superjumbos. This is in addition to the 19 A380s the airline already has on order.

Speaking at the Singapore Airshow last week, Airbus Chief Operating Officer, John Leahy said that Singapore Airlines would need at least 10 more A380s to keep with the rapidly expanding aviation sector in Asia.

“Twenty years from now, 40 percent of all the flights in the world will be within Asia. This will be not too long from now the world's biggest aviation marketplace,” said Randy Tinseth, VP for Marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Airbus faces stiff competition from Boeing, who already has orders for 10 Boeing 777s from Garuda Indonesia and 56 Boeing 737s from Lion Air. In fact, Boeing expects that around 30 percent of all planes sold over the next 20 years will go to the Asia-Pacific region.

“The challenge for Airbus has been to find more customers for the A350, and they've had a flurry of orders last year in Asia, but those haven't been forthcoming this year,” Charles Alcock, senior editor at Aviation International News told the Tribune.

Airbus expects orders to halve to 700 this year, as it enters a period of peak production to clear its backlog of 3,600 orders. Despite this, the manufacturer believes that 15 of the 30 A380s sold this year will go to airlines in Asia.

Peter