The Boeing Co.’s 747 is no longer the largest passenger plane in service.
Airbus’ A380 super jumbo jet completed its first commercial flight today with Singapore Airlines. The jet took off from Singapore’s Changi Airport with 455 passengers on board and landed in Sydney roughly seven hours later.
Here’s what passengers on the flight had to say:
From Bloomberg:
“With this flight we have raised the bar for the industry.” — Chew Choon Seng, Singapore Airlines’ chief executive officer.
“This is history in the making.” — Gary Gower, 42, a British banker who paid $1,800 for two one-way economy tickets in the online auction Singapore Airlines held for the A380’s first flight.
From the International Herald Tribune:
“The flight was spectacular, just truly awesome. I’m thrilled beyond words actually. Just extremely excited. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d put it at 12.” — Thomas Lee, who, at the age of 17, took part in the first flight of Boeing’s 747 in 1970.
“It was like a rocking party at 40,000 feet. We gave it top marks, and I’ll definitely be flying it again.” — Julian Hayward, a British entrepreneur who paid $100,380 for two first-class seats, the highest bid in the auction.
Singapore Airlines published some fun facts about the A380’s first flight, including the menu available to suites passengers (chilled lightly marinated lobster tail, anyone?) The carrier provides info on passengers — nationalities, oldest and youngest, male to-female ratio (the ladies had their pick of men considering females were outnumbered 7 to 3).
Lastly, check out the Spiegel Web site for a great graphic on the size of the A380.
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