‘Big Fella’ has landed

SYDNEY: The biggest airliner ever built completed its maiden commercial flight yesterday when the Singapore Airlines-owned Airbus A380 superjumbo landed in Sydney.
The gigantic double-decker made aviation history when it touched down in Australia from Singapore after months of delays and billions of dollars in cost over-runs.
The plane, with 455 passengers aboard, departed at 0016 GMT from Singapore’s Changi Airport. It touched down in Australia at 5:23pm (0723 GMT), watched by dozens of plane spotters who braved overcast weather for a glimpse of the jet.
“It was a textbook landing, just a beautiful landing by the Singapore Airlines crew,” aviation expert Ian Holland said as the seven-hour and seven minute-long flight came to an end.
Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation managing director Peter Harbison said Airbus executives would be thrilled as they watched the plane finally fly into aviation history from their headquarters in the French city of Toulouse.
“It’s something we’ve been waiting for for a long time, being 18 months late,” Harbison said. “Its a magnificent aircraft.
Flight SQ380 taxied slowly to a special airbridge where passengers began to disembark from both the upper and lower decks simultaneously.
More than 100 journalists waited near the 4km-long runway, as air traffic control audio was broadcast over loudspeakers, with controllers referring to the plane as “the big fella”. – AFP