A380 First Flight
I was lucky enough to win the charity auction bid for a biz class seat on the first A380 from Singapore to Sydney yesterday. It was great to be part of this historical aviation event. There was a great party atmosphere on the flight. The SQ cabin crew did a valiant job serving the punters whilst over 70 jouros and about 10 TV crews were scurrying up and down the aisles interviewing everyone in sight. The CEO of SQ and the Pilot Capt Ting came through and chatted to many pax and presented commemorative certificates. Also bags of memorabilia that will probably end up on e-bay. The operation was typical SQ efficiency, taking off just a little late and landing on time. Jetway took a few mins to attach at Sydney but otherwise operationally faultless. Landing was perfect. The most noticeable things about the aircraft are a) much reduced interior noise (even at the back) and the feeling of space inside the cabins, both upstairs and down. From a pax perspective it is an excellent aircraft to fly on and the biz class seats are to die for. With the SQ config of only 470 passengers the experience in all classes is better than the 744. Lots of press coverage in Sydney last night and today. I think it will be very popular with the punters - now all Airbus has to do is sell enough of them to make some profit !