Manchester Airport played host to a larger than normal visitor this week when the world’s largest commercial airliner, the Airbus A380, landed at the airport for the first time.
Manchester is the first regional airport in the world to have a daily service provided by the A380. The jet has flown into London Heathrow for around two years now.
Emirates flight EK017 from Dubai was greeted by thousands of people, who turned out to see the massive 517-seat double-decker plane land at the airport.
The Airbus A380 made its initial journey on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney.
The A380′s upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a wide-body aircraft. This provides 49% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400. Depending on the configuration of the aeroplane, it can provide seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in an all-economy configuration.
Airbus are to also offer a freighter version of the aircraft, the A380-800F, that when operational will be one of the largest freight aircraft in the world, with a payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225.
The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly non-stop from New York to Hong Kong and has a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).
Andrew Cornish, managing director of Manchester Airport, said: “This is a really significant day for aviation here in the Northwest and we aim to celebrate it appropriately.”
Manchester Airport has invested more than £10 million in the past 18 months upgrading its facilities to accommodate the plane.
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