British Airways has officially received its first superjumbo aircraft from manufacturer Airbus.
BA’s chief executive Keith Williams formally took delivery of its first A380 at Airbus’ factory in Toulouse. The aircraft arrived at Heathrow at around 10.30 today (July 4).
The airline has also decided to bring forward the start of scheduled services with the A380 to Los Angeles and Hong Kong by several weeks.
Superjumbo flights from Heathrow to Los Angeles will now start from September 24 instead of the originally planned date of October 15.
The A380 will also be deployed on the route Hong Kong from October 22, instead of the previous scheduled start of November 15.
BA has ordered 12 superjumbos and becomes the 10th airline to operate the aircraft. The airline plans to operate the A380 on its Heathrow to Frankfurt route before starting service on the two long-haul routes.
Williams said: “We’re delighted to be the first UK airline taking delivery of the A380. It is a great aircraft that has been developed with huge amounts of British engineering ingenuity and we believe it will prove very popular with our customers when it starts flying to its first destination of Los Angeles."
The arrival of the superjumbo comes exactly a week after BA received its first Dreamliner from Boeing.
ba.com