The world’s largest passenger airline, Airbus A380 landed for the first time at Paris’ leading Charles de Gaulle airport on Friday, 1st June, 2007. To greet the A380’s arrival, people who spotted the plane bedecked with cameras and lined the telescopes on the roads near the airport. As the plane taxied on at the airport, two giant water cannons sprayed it.
Aboard the plane were the VIP passengers, six Parisian schoolchildren and their teacher from Airbus’ headquarters in the southwestern city of Toulouse. The plane will remain at the airport for two days of tests before heading to Japan, Australia and Taiwan.
By this summer, Charles de Gaulle airport’s new lounge, designed to handle up to six passenger loads of A380s at the same time, will be operational. There will be three jet ways for speedier boarding on the planes. The airport has already strengthened its runways and widened taxiways.
In October, the first deliveries of the A380 are slated to be made to Singapore Airlines Ltd. Air France-KLM, the first European carrier to fly the plane, will take its first delivery in April 2009.
A380 is known to be the quieter airplane with better fuel efficiency and lower emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide per passenger.
Airbus has received 156 orders for the new plane, which is priced at about $319 million. It has received its orders on its website. There are no U.S. carriers as customers. If the airport enters commercial service, it is expected to be the first U.S. destination for the A380.
More than $120 million are being spent on projects to prepare Los Angeles International and nearby Ontario International airports for the new jets. The world’s busiest passenger airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield International is the only airport that has said it will not adapt the super jumbo because it mainly serves domestic passengers.
The airports in San Francisco, London, Sydney, Singapore and Frankfurt, Germany are also ready to receive the 555-seat plane and have spent millions for the preparations.
Source: USA Today
