Airliner Now In Final Shakedown Testing

Time inches closer for Qantas, as the Australian flag carrier looks forward to receipt of its first Airbus A380. Another milestone towards that goal was reached in Hamburg, Germany, recently when the airline's first aircraft flew for the first time in its new Qantas livery.

Qantas tells ANN that VH-OQA (MSN014) took off with the aircraft's new four-class cabin and systems subjected to flight conditions for the first time. The airline has ordered 20 A380s.

As ANN reported, Qantas will take delivery of this first aircraft from Airbus in Toulouse, France on September 19, 2008. It will arrive in Sydney, Australia on September 21, before operating its first passenger flight, between Melbourne and Los Angeles on October 20.

Following the delivery of a second A380 in November, Qantas plans to operate five A380 flights per week between Los Angeles and Australia: two round-trip flights to Melbourne and three flights to Sydney.

A380 services from Sydney to London via Singapore will be gradually introduced from early 2009.

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.qantas.com