The United States debut of the Airbus A380 Superjumbo jet was today, with two planes touching down on opposing sides of the country. New York won the title of the first city to receive an A380 by twenty minutes.
- Frankfurt to New York – operated by Lufthansa as Flight 8940, carrying around 500 Airbus and Lufthansa employees as well as suppliers and VIPs. Arrived 12:10PM local time in New York. JFK will be handling the bulk of A380 traffic to the United States for the next few years as the planes will likely be deployed to high-yield transatlantic routes.
- Toulouse to Los Angeles – operated by Qantas with a skeleton crew and associated engineers. Arrived 9:30AM local time in Los Angeles.
The first A380 is set to enter passenger service with Singapore Airlines in October. The A380 is the first double-decker aircraft to have doors on both levels, which neccessitated the construction of new jetway to accomodate it. The Lufthansa plane will be proceeding to Chicago-O’Hare tomorrow, and return for a flight around Manhattan on Wednesday, and then head to Frankfurt. It will then proceed to Hong Kong and back before arriving at Washington-Dulles on the 25th, and complete its journey in Munich on the 28th.
A380 Lands at LAX. For more pictures, courtesy of The Desert Sun, click here.
