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First Airbus A380 delivered to SIA
By Sebastian Steinke
The Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Airlines (SIA), Chew Choon Seng, delivered his speech in the Airbus delivery centre in Toulouse with a big smile on his face. “Today is a happy and proud day for Singapore Airlines. The A380 was worth the long wait. Today we are beginning a new chapter in civil aviation. And, starting today, there is a new Queen of the Skies: it is called A380.” With these words Chew alluded to a title which up to now had been claimed by Boeing for its jumbo jet. The long established 747, used by SIA itself, had been technically surpassed, Chew proclaimed. “The jumbo is a good aircraft, but not a completely new one. I am sorry for the 747, but the times are now marching forward.” Chew then continued with unbounded praise for the new flagship. “The A380 is suited for the present and the future. We had our say in determining the payload and range specifications for the A380, and the percentage improvement compared with the costs of today's types. On the noise emission side we wanted to be below the most stringent standards worldwide. I thank Airbus for delivering an aircraft which meets or exceeds all the requirements.” SIA has had its A380 configured as a technical wonder. Entering the main deck of the two-storey giant, the dominant colours of which are light brown and red tones, through the front left door, one finds oneself directly in the inner sanctum, the new “Suites Class” for twelve passengers. This “super” First Class has the booking code “R”, once the class reserved for Concorde flights, and thus alludes to the unusual pricing that applies “above First Class” (SIA). A one-way Suites Class ticket from Singapore to Sydney for the end of November booked via the SIA homepage, for example, carried a price tag equivalent to €2,850.
For your money you get one of the elegant suites, which might be described as a distant cousin of the cubicle office cabins in open plan offices – all to yourself. The width of the A380 main deck is divided into only four suites per row, occupying the same amount of space as ten Economy Class seats further back in the aircraft. The suites were designed by the French luxury yacht designer, Jean-Jacques Costes, and allow one to cut oneself off completely from the outside world if one wants, thanks to sliding doors and retractable blinds. These surround every passenger, so that one is sitting in a small, private room, albeit without one's own ceiling.
Passengers sit on a 58cm wide leather chair, from where they can gaze at a 58cm television screen, and sit or eat at a large table. If the passenger wants to invite a guest for dinner, for example, there is even room to accommodate a second passenger on a stool in the cabin. But it is when it is time to go to sleep that the high point of this luxury is revealed: an unobtrusively stowed, single-part, thick mattress 1.98m long and 69cm wide swings out in a mounting support. This is the real innovation. “Our suites are designed for travellers who don't want any compromises over seating or sleeping,” SIA CEO Chew makes clear. “This is setting a new standard for airline travel. In return, we can sell the suites for 20 to 25 percent more than we do a normal First Class ticket.”
The lying area, which appears to be about 10cm thick and is made from special foam, is supposed to adapt optimally to the body contours of the passenger and does not have any hinges, edges or seams which might disturb the incumbent in any way – something which in previous combination reclining seats it was not always possible to avoid.
The two inner rows of four suites can be transformed into two double suites by lowering the partitions. If both parties so request, it is even possible to move the two beds together at night to produce a “honeymoon suite”. However, if one leaves the opaque partitions up, one can be oblivious of the person in the next seat or bed. The 471 passengers in the three booking classes have electronic access to 100 cinema films, 700 music CDs and 22 radio channels and can use office software via individual mini-keyboards. Even in the Economy Class the seat-mounted TV screens have a 27cm diagonal width. This rises to 39cm in Business Class.
SIA has not taken up the suggestion presented in the full-size fuselage models in Airbus's Toulouse sales department of installing a bar in its A380. Instead, the stewardesses bring everything to the passenger's seat. But should the Business Class passengers feel restless in their extravagant 87cm wide seats, they can go for a stroll to a small bar area in the galley between the first two top deck doors. The top floor opens by the nose to the side of the large staircase into a cloakroom corridor (to the right) and a corridor leading to the washroom and WC (left). Again, there is no sign here of the couch or lounge suggested by Airbus.
The stewardesses have their own rest room at the back of the lower deck, i.e. under the main deck, which means that the A380 is a genuine three-floor aircraft. The only hint of this is the absence of one seat at the back of the main deck Economy Class section to make way for the inconspicuous emergency hatch in the floor. The pilots and their relief crew can access two separate dormitories and a separate toilet behind their armoured cockpit door, which is kept permanently locked. Another armoured door serves as an airlock to their workstations.
As the A380 chief pilot at SIA, Captain Robert Ting was already looking forward to his ferry flight with the empty A380 on the evening of 16 October. “Depending on the wind situation, we will either take the normal northern route over Afghanistan or fly somewhat further south over Dubai,” he said. Apparently it is only during taxiing that one notices the difference caused by the higher mass of the A380, as the thrust required is somewhat higher. Otherwise, the aircraft is similar to fly to any other large Airbus. Because the A380 is a completely new type, it was due to be accompanied during the first two weeks by Airbus chief test pilot Claude Lelaie and five other Airbus test pilots.
“From the pilot's point of view, the A380 is not a problem,” agrees Captain Jürgen Raps, new Executive Vice President Operations at Lufthansa and one of four A380 qualified pilots there so far. “It is very sporty to fly and is very agile.” With a twinkle in his eye, Raps says mockingly, “Actually this A380 here is ours. After all we were originally supposed to get our first aircraft in September 2007.”
Once SIA takes delivery of the next two customer aircraft at the beginning of 2008, it will start daily flights to London Heathrow as well as to Sydney. On the other hand the fourth SIA A380, due for delivery in April, will be used for daily flights to Tokyo Narita commencing in May, before the fifth and sixth aircraft can begin flights to Hong Kong and San Francisco. Until August 2008 Singapore Airlines will be the only A380 operator in the world. SIA has specified the present cabin design for its first ten A380's The design of the other nine aircraft on order could if required be changed in the light of current experience.
Altogether Airbus expects to deliver 13 A380's for the whole of 2008, rising to 25 in 2009. The production rate will not reach its full capacity of 45 until 2010, as the first 25 aircraft still have to be fitted with the revised cabling, which takes a lot of time to install. Only from serial number MSN026 will all the aircraft in so-called “Wave 2” be fitted with the final production cabling which has been developed since the cable crisis using the updated design software.
“We should not be carried away by the euphoria of the first delivery into assuming that the rest will now be really easy,” warned Airbus CEO Thomas Enders. “After all, we still need another 1,000 extra people from Germany to help with the Toulouse A380 final assembly line. The last 18 months have been hectic. That makes the achievement of the workforce, as a result of which they have changed the whole of aviation, even more impressive. They are handing over a mature aircraft.” Enders recalled that the almost two-year delay to deliveries had arisen because the company had not been sufficiently integrated and had underestimated the complexity of the work. “It was very unpleasant for us when the delays came,” SIA CEO Chew recalls. “So we are all the more satisfied that Airbus has handed over a truly mature aircraft. The A380 has undergone more hours of flight testing than all the programmes of last 30 years that I know.”
From FLUG REVUE 12/2007
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