Emirates A380 makes history
August 4th, 2008 | by Administrator |Emirates, the United Arab Emirates flag airline, made the aviation history.
It happened last friday, the first commercial A380 ‘superjumbo’ left Dubai at 11 a.m. and touched the American soil 13.5 hours later, with 489 passengers and 24 cabin crew on board. This will be repeated 3 times a week from Friday 8th of August.
A number of senior Emirates’ executives joined the A380 flight, including the airline’s President Tim Clark; Keith Longstaff, Divisional Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations Worldwide; Terry Daly, Divisional Senior Vice President, Service Delivery; and Andrew Parker, Senior Vice President, Public and Environmental Affairs.
On Monday, 4th August, the aircraft will be on show at San Francisco International Airport before moving on to the Flight Path Museum in Los Angeles the following day. In both cities, guests and media representatives will be given the flight of their lives during a 2-hour demonstration. Further static tours will take place on the ground.
Despite its colossal size, the luxurious Emirates’ A380 is among the most environmentally considerate aircraft ever built and offers better fuel economy per passenger mile than most hybrid passenger cars. Its Engine Alliance GP7200 engines are noticeably quiet – great news for passengers and a welcomed development for residents below.
The aircraft is very much the new “baby” of the Emirates Group after being handed over at Airbus’s new Jürgen Thomas A380 Delivery Centre in Hamburg on Monday.
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman & Chief Executive Emirates Airline and Group, attended the handover ceremony, along with Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline; Airbus CEO Tom Enders; former Engine Alliance President, Bruce Hughes and Jürgen Thomas, the “founding father” of the A380. Boris Becker, the former Wimbledon champion, joined the euphoria and helped add a true game, set and match feeling to the whole occasion.
Emirates is due to receive five of the super-jumbos in the current financial year. After being incorporated into the airline’s twice-daily service to New York, the quieter, greener aircraft will be deployed on the London Heathrow route from 1st December and on the Sydney and Auckland services from February next year.
