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Superjumbo's $110,000 ticket buyer revealed
Julian Hayward aboard the first Airbus A380 delivered to Singapore Airlines
during the official handover in Toulouse earlier this week.
Photo: AFP
October 17, 2007 - 10:32A
The mystery bidder who paid more than $110,000 for a ticket on the first A380
superjumbo flight from Singapore to Sydney has been revealed.
Julian Hayward, a 38-year-old Briton based in Sydney sought a "little bit of
history" by flying in seat 1A in the first class area of the plane on next
week's journey.
An internet auction for tickets on the inaugural flight raised $US1.3 million
($A1.45 million) for charity.
The first delivered Airbus A380 superjumbo, owned by Singapore Airlines, took
off this morning from Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, southern France, bound
for its new home in Singapore.
Singapore Airlines crew including pilots and technicians were aboard the
73-metre-long jet, which is to make its first commercial flight on October 25
between Singapore and Sydney.
Today's 13-hour flight comes only a day after Airbus delivered the jet, the
largest passenger plane in history, to Singapore Airlines.
Rollout of the jet, which can carry up to 853 passengers, is a year and a
half behind schedule because of production problems that embarrassed the
European firm, the bitter rival of Boeing Co of the United States.
Airbus had major problems with the wiring of the more than 530 kilometres of
cable in each aircraft and executives admitted yesterday that the group had
"greatly underestimated the complexity of this plane".
Lack of co-operation between French and German engineers - Airbus has plants
in Britain, France, Germany and Spain - was blamed and the group has since
launched a restructuring plan aiming to cut 10,000 jobs.
Although the A380 is capable of carrying more than 800 passengers in an
all-economy configuration, Singapore Airlines has chosen to install just 471
seats to offer more space, particularly in business and first class.
The plane includes 12 private suites, each with a large, first-class size
seat and a real bed with full-size mattress.
Each suite has a 58-centimetre flat-screen television and sheets by French
designer Givenchy.
The "suite class" seats on the Singapore-Sydney route, on which A380 flights
will begin regularly from October 28, are to be 40-80 per cent more expensive
than first class on a Boeing 747, a spokesman told Agence France-Presse. The
price of a suite on this route is to be about $A12,600.
The A380 problems over the past two years have provoked management changes,
financial losses and a politically sensitive cost-cutting plan at Airbus.
Most recently, the plane has been at the centre of an insider trading
scandal, with top managers and key shareholders suspected of selling shares
in parent company EADS before the A380 production problems were made public.
Sixteen airlines have placed firm orders for the A380, including Qantas
Airways.
Dubai-based Emirates is the leading client among a customer list that
includes predominantly Asian, European and Gulf-based carriers.
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