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Friday, Jul 16, 2010
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World's largest aircraft makes first commercial landing in India

Urvashi Sarkar

Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

Grand landing:An inside view of the Airbus A-380 of the Emirates Airlines, which made its inaugural flight from Dubai to Delhi, on the newly-opened Terminal-3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Thursday. —

DUBAI/NEW DELHI: The first commercial landing of the Airbus A380 — the largest aircraft of the world — took place at the newly inaugurated Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Thursday.

Organised to commemorate the launch of Terminal 3, the touchdown of flight EK-516 of the Emirates Airline from Dubai to Delhi was greeted by a water cannon salute at the airport.

A major feature of the new T3 is its A380-compatible runway and passenger boarding bridges. However, rain held up the landing for about half an hour. The plane, which was supposed to land at 2.55 p.m., landed at roughly 3.35 p.m. The aircraft was about to touch down but owing to rain and poor visibility problems it took another round of the airfield before landing.

On landing too, there was some delay before passengers could disembark. The pilot announced that the delay was caused as the aerobridges were being connected. Sources, however, said it was a stray dog on the runway that had caused the problem.

An Emirates official said: “We organised this flight to promote the A380 in India and give an idea to people about what it is like.” However, India will have to wait before Emirates commences regular A380 operations in the country as the airline has no such immediate plans.

Incidentally, it was the Kingfisher Airlines which first flew in the A380 to India in 2007.

The A380, which is the world's only twin-deck, two-aisle airliner, is touted to be less polluting to the environment compared to other aircraft. It offers better fuel economy per passenger mile than most hybrid passenger cars and also produces less noise.

The aircraft has two decks. The business and first class seats are on the upper deck of the Emirates A380 while economy seats are on the lower or main deck.

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