The A380: 5 Big Years

On the fifth anniversary of the Airbus A380’s maiden commercial voyage – a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Sydney – KARAMJIT KAUR highlights five superlatives about the superjumbos in Singapore Airlines' fleet.

It debuted to much fanfare on October 25, 2007, carrying passengers from across the world who had bid for a seat on the historic Singapore Airlines A380 flight from Singapore to Sydney. Close to S$2 million (US$1.59 million) was raised for charity in the process. Five years on, Singapore Airlines has 19 A380s flying to 10 destinations worldwide. Here are more awesome statistics about the largest passenger plane in the world.

New sky giant: Thai Airways receives its first A380 Superjumbo

Thai Airways received its first Airbus A380 Superjumbo last week, boosting efforts to compete with Singapore Airlines and Emirates for lucrative corporate travellers.

The carrier's planned fleet of six A380s and new Boeing 777-300ERs will help it raise the percentage of seats filled in premium cabins across its network to more than 70 per cent from about 60 per cent, Acting-President Chokchai Panyayong said in a interview in Bangkok. He didn't give a timeframe for the goal.

Load factors in first and business class are "a little bit low," he said. "With improvements in the product and services we can increase that."

Thai's 507-seat A380s and new regional unit Thai Smile will lead a push to win more business traffic as low-cost airlines lure leisure flyers. Budget airlines eventually may boost their share of regional travel to as much as 35 per cent from 20 per cent, Chokchai said.

Airbus A380: how the airlines compare

Here is the definitive guide to current A380 operators Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas, Air France, Lufthansa, Korean Air, China Southern, Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways. 

Thai Airways became the ninth carrier to take delivery of the Airbus A380 in September 2012, and has a total of six superjumbos on order, configured for 507 seats with 12 in Royal First Class, 60 in Royal Silk business class, and 435 in economy.

First and business class cabins feature fully-flat beds, and all passengers benefit from AVOD in-flight entertainment systems, individual power sources, and wifi internet and mobile phone access.

Qantas grounds A380 after finding 36 cracks on wings

A Qantas Airways Airbus A380 has been grounded after 36 cracks were found on its wings on 5 February.

The aircraft, which bears the registration VH-OQF, had its airframe built in 2010 and has clocked 399 flight cycles totalling 2,454 flight hours, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database.

The aircraft was first grounded when Airbus requested a second phase of precautionary checks on its wings after it went through severe turbulence in January, said Qantas. Airbus made the request after reviewing data of the turbulent flight.