Inside the Emirates Airbus A380

As the Emirates Airbus A 380 touched down at the Delhi airport on Thursday – the first commercial flight of the world’s largest passenger aircraft on the Indian soil – it marked a new chapter in the country civil aviation history.

As the Emirates Airbus A 380 touched down at the Delhi airport on Thursday – the first commercial flight of the world’s largest passenger aircraft on the Indian soil – it marked a new chapter in the country civil aviation history.

HT Image

The one-off commercial flight from Dubai, which arrived to a water cannon salute, was to celebrate the inauguration of Delhi airport’s showpiece Terminal 3, said Majid Al Mualla, senior vice president, Emirates.

The special flight was a chance for passengers to experience the aircraft’s grandeur, luxurious onboard amenities and whole range of innovations as Emirates, which has 11 A 380’s in its fleet, or any other airline, still does not operate one to India.

The double-deck super jumbo offers 14 flat bed first class private suites with electrically operated doors and 76 fully flat seats (two metres long) in business class – all with mini bars and aisle access – on the upper deck. There are 427 comfortable contoured seats in economy – spread across four roomy cabins on the lower deck.

The overall length of the aircraft is 73 metres, the cabin length is 50.68 metres and the maximum cabin width is 6.58 metres.

The 26-member crew of the airline was fluent in ten languages including Hindi, French, Korean, Thai and Afrikan.

Shower spas for first class passengers, onboard lounge and bar areas for first class and business class passengers, a personal satellite phone fitted to each seat on the A380 aircraft, which also carries a seat back SMS and email service, along with seat to seat calling and a "My USB" personal picture viewing facility – the super jumbo has all the comforts and luxuries on-board.

Its in-flight entertainment system consists of more than 1,000 channels of on-demand entertainment, including 200 movies, 100 TV channels, more than 500 audio channels, 100 video games and news, sports and business headlines.

Flying in the A 380 was indeed a memorable experience as passengers clicked photographs all through the journey.

“This is an experience of a life time. The massive bird flying into the Indian skies for the very first time from the biggest terminal of the world – Dubai’s T 3 – to India’s most advanced airport in the state-of-the-art Terminal 3 at the IGI,” one of the passengers on board said.

“The A 380 burns up to 20 per cent less fuel per seat than today’s next largest aircraft and is more fuel efficient than a small family car,” an airline official said.

· This was the first commercial flight of the world’s largest passenger aircraft on the Indian soil

· The 517-seater double-deck super jumbo has 14 flat bed first class private suites, 76 fully flat seats in business class and 427 in economy

· The 26-member crew of the airline was fluent in ten languages including Hindi, French, Korean, Thai and Afrikan

· Special feature incude shower spas for first class passengers, onboard lounge and bar areas for first class and business class passengers, personal satellite phone fitted to each seat on the A380 aircraft

· The in-flight entertainment system consists of more than 1,000 channels of on-demand entertainment

· The A 380 burns up to 20 per cent less fuel per seat than today’s next largest aircraft and is more fuel efficient than a small family car