Airbus A380-800 Enters Service. Finally.

After a two year delay, the Airbus A380-800 finally entered service on October 25 2007 with Singapore Airlines.

Launch customer Emirates will receive its first A380-800 later next year.

Image courtesy of Airbus/Singapore Airlines

Late, over budget and, according to Emirates, overweight - the A380 doesn’t give the world anything as revolutionary as the Boeing 747 did back in the early 1970’s - but for Airbus, it has now firmly stamped its presence on the global stage as the biggest commercial airplane.

Click here for some panoramic images too. Very impressive indeed!

One person who also basked in the glory of the first revenue flight was the man behind the flight controls of the A380 itself - Captain Robert Ting.

Image courtesy of Flight Global.com/Singapore Airlines

“Airbus has the family concept, so when it built this A380 a bit bigger, it said it wanted it to fly very close to the A340-500 or the A330.

“Because it’s fly-by-wire, Airbus is able to tune it so the response comes in almost the same way,” he said. “So, in that way, it was very easy to make the transition from a 340-500 to an A380.

“Even though the plane is heavier, once in the air you don’t feel the size - you don’t feel the wings.”

The A380-800 will not honor every airport as todays Boeing 747 fleet does. But it does give that something (s)extra in the skies for those that are willing and able to make use of the Singapore Airlines Suites.

Image courtesy of Boeing.com

Also, there are those such as this blogger who even cast doubt on the environmental merits of the A380. Certainly, it will not be as economical or environmentally friendly as the revolutionary Boeing 787 Dreamliner when it enters service later next year.

On the downside for the A380, doubts about its future, sales and long term survival have never really gone away since the concept was revealed as the A3XX.

“The A380 was a big mistake then and it is a big mistake now” said Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group.

“It is something they have to recover from and they are doing their best to recover.”

On the 777, 787 and A350 market segment, Aboulafia states that “this is the market that matters.” “It is all about range, not capacity.”

Image courtesy of Airbus.com

He goes on to say:

“Not only will they not reach that figure (of 400 sales), but I don’t believe it is relevant because it does not speak to pricing,” Aboulafia said. “If they sell 400 planes but at 60 percent discount, is that the break-even number? I doubt it.”

Whether you agree with Aboulafia or not, the burgeoning cost of the A380 is something Airbus has not handled at all well.

With the A350XWB in development, Airbus will be working hard to ensure that it makes it to market on time and on budget.

For the here and now, the Earth has a new leviathan in the skies - but it will play a small part in that crowded atmosphere while twin engine airplanes like the 777, 787 and A350 go on to dominate and further open up new city connections away from congested hub airports.

Congratulations to Airbus and Singapore Airlines on this historic milestone.

8 comments October 26th, 2007