Third Singapore Superjumbo Lands At Heathrow

She's ready for primetime. A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 took off Tuesday from Singapore to London Heathrow, marking the first passenger-carrying superjumbo flight to Europe.

Flight SQ308 carried 449 passengers, and landed at Heathrow just before 1500 local time (1100 EDT) -- a little early -- reports The Associated Press. Singapore Airlines took delivery of the aircraft, 9V-SKB, last week in Toulouse.

It is the third A380 to enter service with the carrier; the other two operate routes from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. As ANN reported, Singapore Airlines took delivery of its first A380 in October 2007.

German passenger Christian Ernst was among several passengers who made a special effort to be on the A380 flight to London. "I booked an extra ticket just for this experience," said Ernst, 25. "I'm very excited to be on the first flight of the A380 to Europe.

"I'm really interested in this technology," the mechanical engineering student added. "I've also visited the production line in Hamburg and now I really want to experience the plane flying in the air." 

Singapore Airlines is currently the only commercial A380 operator -- and will remain so until Emirates receives its first A380 in August. Singapore Airlines is scheduled to receive its fourth A380 in early May, and begin service from Singapore to Tokyo on May 20.

FMI: www.singaporeair.com, www.airbus.com