I see in the news that Airbus are going to offer Barack Obama an A380 to use as Airforce One and replace the 747. I can't see it being accepted though as Obama's home state is where Boeing have their facilities, he may get a lot of backlash if he was to accept it.

Dave

We flew on the A380 with Singapore Airlines in the summer. I was quite excited as I did not realise until online check in on the way home that we were on it

in the news that Airbus are going to offer Barack Obama an A380 to use as Airforce One and replace the 747

More chance of seeing a cow jump over the moon than seeing an A380 in service as Air Force One!!! There's too much political and national pride at stake to have a european jet flying the American President around. Look at the tanker debacle when they selected the Airbus A330 over the Boeing 767, nearly started a civil war! The media also forget the A380 is such a large aircraft that it can't land at most airports, whereas the 747 can land at a good proportion. It's just a PR exercise and part of the ongoing Airbus V Boeing contest.

Darren

Airbus A380 on tour around the UK

The Airbus A380 is due to make approach-and-go fly-throughs this Saturday 5 September at Edinburgh Airport, Prestwick Airport, Belfast City Airport, the Northern Ireland Airshow at Portrush, Birmingham Airport and the Airbus plant at Broughton in North Wales.

David

Further to David's post, the aircraft scheduled to perfom the approach / go-arounds is F-WWDD (one of the development aircraft) with timings as follows:

Edinburgh 1340
Prestwick 1400
Port Rush Airshow 1420
Belfast City 1440
Broughton 1508
Birmingham 1540

I watched her perform the same in Manchester on 12th July 2008. She's such a graceful and impressively quiet aircraft.

Darren

prestwick is only 10miles from me, taking the wee fella down on saturday and i think my old man is heading down too.

hoping to get a few good pics

I`ve heard that the A380 is flyinging into Flinton today around 1600 not sure if this is true though.

1340 GMT Flypast Edinburgh Airport, Scotland

1400 GMT Flypast Prestwick Airport, Scotland

1420 GMT Display at the Northern Ireland International Air Show, Portrush

1440 GMT Flypast Belfast City Airport, Northern Ireland

1508 GMT Flypast Airbus Broughton, near Chester

1540 GMT Flypast Birmingham International Airport

The aircraft is also set to fly over the Airbus factory at Filton in Bristol, but Airbus have not yet released a time for this flypast.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9315/snv30112.jpg

she was a beast of a machine, very quite for the size i must say.

Did I remember right that the A380 is due in (and out - hopefully!) of Birmingham tomorrow ????

Yes, according to THIS information from Darren a few weeks ago in our Birmingham Airport topic. Will you be there to see it ?

David

Won't need to go beyond my front door if the wind is in the right direction............................ Unless I'm extremely unlucky should get an ant's eye view on approach or departure
Bet Sheldon Country Park at the end of the runway will be packed though!!

My other half was at the Bristol Rovers game on saturday and saw it fly over, really low! Great half time entertainment!!

Adapted from Air France's news section, with a few details expanded ..

Great news for aeroplane lovers who haven't broken the bank at Monte Carlo!

London to Paris on the A380! Air France has announced that the Paris-London sector currently operated by an Airbus A320 will be served by an A380.

The 538 seat aircraft has been assigned to this route because it would otherwise sit idle for nearly 18 hours due to its current schedule. Apart from increasing the capacity of the route, this is a brilliant chance for A380 enthusiasts to take a ride in the massive new plane without needing to fork out for a long haul ticket, as it is long haul routes mainly served by the A380.

The flight numbers AF1980 (CDG-LHR 10H00-10H25) and AF1981 (LHR-CDG -12H50-15H50) will use an A380 between 12th June and 30th August 2010.

(When I looked on 13 May it was only around 80€ for the round trip!!!)

(I found this out first on PPRuNe)

Alsacienne,

Thanks for posting that. I knew about it a month ago and was planning a trip from MAN-LHR-CDG-MAN for a play on the A380, even though it's only a 35 minute flight but work is getting in the way The real reason it's being used on that route is for crew training, not just that it will be sat idle!

Darren

I have no problem with the crew training on me during an A380 flight!!

I have been having a look on the Tas website and have noticed that the A380 will be operating its first flight out of Manchester on the 1st September at 1410 flying to Dubai.
Does anyone know if it will be operating on a regular basis?
Don`t think we can make 1st September due to work comitments but would to see it land and take off our son is 11 and is fasinated with it.

I have just had alook on Emirates website and they say their Man/Dubai service will be using the A380 on their twice daily service I hope this is true.

Thanks

christine w,

It'll be operating daily on the EK017/8 from 1st September replacing the current 77W. The later EK019/20 will continue being a 77W.

Darren

My daughter and her family was a passenger on a Singapore airlines A380 at Easter.
They still had 11 hours of turbulence on the return journey and werent sitting together.