A380 to Make UK Debut Next Month

The world's biggest airliner, the 555-seater Airbus A380 superjumbo, is to make its UK debut next month, it was announced today.

The huge plane, whose wings are built in Britain, will fly into Heathrow airport in west London on May 18.

While the aircraft is at Heathrow, airport compatibility checks will be carried out with airport operator BAA.

The first two A380s are due to be delivered to Singapore Airlines at the end of this year and the Far East carrier is expected to choose Heathrow as the plane's first European destination.

The A380 will park at Heathrow's new pier 6 at Terminal 3 on its visit next month and will stay overnight.

The tests during the plane's visit will ensure everything is ready for the aircraft's entry into service.

After being unveiled at a lavish ceremony at Toulouse attended by Prime Minister Tony Blair in January 2005, the giant aircraft first flew at Toulouse in April last year. The plane coming to Heathrow will fly in from the Berlin air show.

There have been 159 firm orders for the A380. Customers include Sir Richard Branson's airline Virgin Atlantic, Middle East carrier Emirates, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas and Qatar Airways.

The A380 is powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. At least 22,000 of the 140,000 direct and indirect jobs in the UK generated by Airbus result from the A380.

More than 400 companies throughout the UK are contributing to the A380 programme, including the two Airbus UK sites at Filton near Bristol and at Broughton in North Wales.

Work valued at over £7.5 billion has been placed in the UK on the A380 programme, through Britain's responsibility for its wings, landing gear and fuel systems.

During the programme this figure is set to more than double to over £15 billion. The Rolls-Royce engines are set to generate a further £11 billion of work.

The A380 is 73m long and 24.1m high.

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