Heading home: SIA's A380
Posted: 16 October 2007 1444 hrs

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Singapore's Changi Airport will be home to the Singapore Airlines A380 fleet and when the new Terminal 3 opens early next year. Nineteen gates across the three terminals will be fully A380-ready, including having aerobridge access to both decks.

The new super jumbo is scheduled to arrive in Singapore on Wednesday evening before commencing service on Sunday, 28 October 2007, between Singapore and Sydney as part of the three daily flights in each direction.

But the A380's first commercial service will begin slightly earlier, on Thursday, 25 October, with a special return flight between Singapore and Sydney.

Most of the seats on this inaugural flight were auctioned on eBay, with all of the US$1.3 million raised in the the auction going to three different charities.

The mystery bidder who paid more than US$100,000 for first and best seat on the maiden flight is Julian Hayward, a young dotcom entrepreneur.

The 38-year-old Briton whose previous adventures include taking a nuclear submarine and flying in a Russian MiG-25 fighter jet, said he wanted a "little bit of history" by flying in seat 1A on the A380.

"I'm the sort of person who acts first and thinks about it afterwards," added Hayward, who has been travelling for the last five years after selling off his Internet business.

Hayward was among the select few invited to attend the ceremony in Toulouse, France, where the A380 was formally handed over to Singapore Airlines.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chew Choon Seng, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Airlines said: "This delivery really marks the beginning of a new chapter for the aviation industry and we feel honoured to be the ones opening this new chapter."

Calling it a landmark day, the Chief Executive Officer of Airbus, Thomas Enders, paid tribute to those in the company, especially the engineers, who had worked over the years to make it happen.

Describing the A380 as an "uncompromised clean sheet design", Enders hailed the new super jumbo not as a luxury, but a necessity. "The A380, is a huge step ahead in environmental performance. This, as some have dubbed it 'Gentle Green Giant', gives airlines the opportunity for growth and innovation but with less environmental impact and unprecedented comfort."

The A380 has been hailed as an engineering project unrivalled in the aerospace industry, as it is the largest passenger plane ever built and the first in decades that features a completely new design of a passenger aircraft. - CNA/sf