10 years on, the A380 has yet to fly high

Singapore

IF A WEEK is a long time in politics, 10 years must feel like an eternity for Airbus's A380 programme.

It was exactly 10 years ago this week when this reporter took off with some 400 other passengers, media and a couple of celebrity chefs on the first commercial flight on the giant plane. On board flight SQ380 from Changi to Sydney on Oct 25, 2007, was the then-CEO of Singapore Airlines Chew Choon Seng, senior officials, celebrity travellers from around the world and others given to wanderlust. There were even a couple of celebrity chefs on board to personally prepare the inflight meals.

It was a deservedly proud moment for Airbus and SIA, the first commercial operator of the plane.

Subsequently, SIA took delivery of 19 of the giant planes, putting them on a dozen key routes such as London, Sydney, Frankfurt and Osaka. Another dozen operators from around the world bought or leased the planes, including Qantas, British Airways, Qatar, Lufthansa, Thai and Malaysia Airlines. But the biggest operator remains Emirates, whose fleet of some 100 planes serves dozens of daily flights to many of its 150 destinations from the Dubai hub. The key advantage of this plane, which can take up to about 700 passengers, depending on configuration, is its ability to fly high density loads into slot-restricted airports around the world. Among its main claims to fame are that it boasts lower cost per passenger kilometre, has a significantly reduced noise footprint and burns 12 per cent less fuel than its competitors, thus also reducing emission…