Airbus superjumbo to land at New York's JFK

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Airbus' A380 superjumbo is set to touch down at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport Friday, marking the first commercial arrival of the giant, double-decker passenger plane on U.S. soil.

The Emirates aircraft, carrying 489 passengers, took off from Dubai earlier in the day, and is scheduled to arrive at 2.45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT) after a 14-hour flight.

The Gulf-based carrier, owned by the government of Dubai, is the second airline to put the A380 into service, following Singapore Airlines (other-otc: SGPJF.PK - news - people ), which started A380 flights to Sydney in October.

The plane, costing $327 million at list prices, did visit New York and Los Angeles in March last year for route-testing purposes, but Friday's flight is the first regularly scheduled arrival of an A380 in the United States.

With its huge capacity and relatively fuel-efficient engines, airlines are hoping the world's biggest passenger jet will be the most cost-effective way of serving high-volume routes linking big cities, especially in the light of soaring oil prices.

A successful touchdown will be a hard-won victory for Airbus, a unit of aerospace group EADS, which spent $10 billion and more than a decade on Europe's largest industrial project, in the face of widespread skepticism.

Airbus has now sold about 200 of the planes to 16 airlines, but none to U.S. carriers. The company is still struggling to iron out production problems on the plane, after an 18-month delay in getting the first one out of its Toulouse, France, plant.

The delays ended up pushing Airbus into loss and toppling its management, and are still causing political aftershocks in France.


OUTSELLING BOEING

Despite problems, the plane is outselling its nearest competitor, Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) Co's revamped, expanded 747-8 jumbo, known as the Intercontinental.

Boeing, which invented the concept of mass travel over great distances with its original 747 in the 1970s, has sold only 27 passenger 747-8s so far. The plane, which can seat 467 people in a standard layout, is set to fly first in Lufthansa colors in 2010.

While the success of the A380 may be bad news for Boeing, plenty of U.S. suppliers are providing parts and electronics for the superjumbo, including Honeywell International Inc (nyse: HON - news - people ) , Spirit AeroSystems Holdings (nyse: SPR - news - people ) Inc, Rockwell Collins Inc (nyse: COL - news - people ) and Goodrich (nyse: GR - news - people ) Corp.

The engines on Emirates' A380 are also U.S.-made, produced by the Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric Co (nyse: GE - news - people ) and Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (nyse: UTX - news - people )

Emirates, the world's No. 7 airline in terms of international passengers, is the biggest buyer of A380s, with 58 on order, worth almost $190 billion at list prices. After New York, it plans to fly the planes to London from December, then Sydney and Auckland from February.

Some 20 airports worldwide are currently able to handle the giant A380, which needs extra-wide runways for its long wingspan and two-tiered facilities for loading and unloading passengers.

Emirates took possession of the plane in a glitzy ceremony in Hamburg on Monday, flying it to Dubai then over to New York. The plane has 14 first-class suites, two on-board showers and a bar for first-class customers, as well as a lounge for premium passengers.

Emirates, and regional rivals Qatar Airways, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways and Bahrain's Gulf Air, are expanding their fleets and routes even as European and U.S. carriers find themselves pinched by high fuel prices and waning demand.

Oil-rich Emirates is hoping to use its new planes to help transform itself into a world business and leisure capital in the next few years, aiming to attract 15 million visitors a year by 2012. (Reporting by Bill Rigby, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)


Singapore - By Bill Rigby