New Airbus is a really big thing

Airbus on Tuesday lifted the curtain on its A380 super jumbo—the world’s biggest passenger aircraft that is set to eclipse Boeing’s 747 when it takes to the skies next year.

The European company unveiled the aircraft, which can carry up to 840 passengers, at a glitzy ceremony at its headquarters in Toulouse, south-west France.

French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero attended the presentation, along with 5 000 guests from the world’s aviation sector and media.

“Under the name Airbus, Europe has written one of the most beautiful pages in its history,” Airbus chief Noel Forgeard told the packed hall.

“In this great aircraft, there is a mixture of determination and of dreams, which is, and always has been, at the heart of the wealth and splendid complexity of our European culture,” he said, standing in front of the plane.

The A380, with its wingspan of 80m, overall length of 73m, height of 24m and maximum take-off weight of 560 tonnes, can carry more passengers than any other commercial aircraft today.

It far exceeds the 747 by United States rival Boeing by being able to transport between 500 passengers in a typical first-, business- and economy-class configuration and 840 passengers in an all-economy set-up on its two full decks.

The 747, which has ruled the commercial skies since 1975, typically carries 416 passengers in comparison.

Chirac said the “big success” of the A380 project shows that Europe should cooperate further in other industrial domains, notably in high technology.

“We can, and we must, go further on this path of European construction so essential for growth and employment,” he said.

Blair called the A380 “simply stunning”.

“Today is the culmination of many years of hard work,” he said, congratulating the workers in Britain and in the other European countries involved for their contributions.

Schröder took the opportunity to make a barely veiled jab at the US, whose Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, dismissed France, Germany and other countries as “Old Europe” for opposing the Iraq war.

“Good old Europe has made this possible,” the German leader said, hailing Europe’s leading position in civil aviation.—AFP