ON BOARD A-380: Forget about it being the world's largest passenger aircraft or its wingspan giving goose bumps to even the biggest soccer field. The most gentle and quiet big daddy of all passenger jetliners, the A-380 completed its 100-minute Delhi-Mumbai flight on Tuesday with aplomb, grace and finesse.

If the takeoff from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport showed how easy it was to manoeuvre the big bird, the landing at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport demonstrated that it could land with ease, approaching the runway with the speed of a single-aisle aircraft.

Maiden visit

On its maiden visit to Mumbai, the A-380 was received by airport employees, who lined the taxiways. Curious onlookers perched themselves on rooftops to catch a glimpse of the aircraft as it came to a halt and waited for an aerobridge to be latched on.

On this flight, the aircraft carried about 175 passengers, including media personnel, senior Airbus officials, travel agents and Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya, who has placed orders for purchase of five A-380s. The first delivery is expected only in 2011, and by then Mr. Mallya hopes Kingfisher would get permission to fly abroad, so that the aircraft could be deployed on the U.S. routes.

Kingfisher is the only carrier from India that has ordered the A-380, with a list price of about $300 million (about Rs. 1,200 crore per aircraft).

"Aircraft of the future"

John Leahy, Chief Operating Officer (Customers), Airbus, was hopeful that 20 more orders from various carriers in India could come this year. Though he did not divulge any details, he sounded optimistic that the A-380 would be billed as the aircraft of the future, as the global traffic continued to grow at 5 per cent per annum and was expected to double over the next 15 years.

The first commercial delivery of the A-380 would be made to Singapore Airlines later this year. It would be followed by the delivery of 13 aircraft to various other carriers in 2008, 25 aircraft in 2009 and 45 in 2010.

So far, the European consortium has secured 156 firm orders for the A-380 superjumbo, which is expected to give keen competition to its rival Boeing's 747-400 in terms of passenger carrying capacity and environment-friendly technology. Emirates and Qantas are the others who will get A-380s over the next couple of years.

Maintenance facilities

"The A-380 will bring new standards of passenger comfort and fuel efficiency to the Indian aviation market. The A-380 is truly a `green giant' with the lowest environmental impact of any aircraft flying today or in the near future with lower fuel consumption and lower noise," Mr. Leahy said. Airbus would be investing about $1 billion in India over the next decade for setting up maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities and pilot training centres.

Seeking to address the concerns of airport operators, Mr. Leahy said the A-380 could land and takeoff from 70 airports around the world, and it had visited 45 airports in different countries.

Air traffic between hub-cities would continue to grow, and would need larger aircraft. In a typical configuration of business and economy classes, the A-380 could seat 520 passengers in its double-decker floors, which had lounges and bars as well. In an all-economy configuration, it could seat 850 passengers, he said. The aircraft was powered by Trent engines, manufactured by Rolls-Royce.

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