London: The world's busiest international airport welcomed the world's biggest passenger plane for the first time.
And with the exception of a slight jolt on landing - the two seem to get along just fine.
The double-decker jumbo, which flew in from Berlin landed at Heathrow on Thursday. The Airbus A380, is in the United Kingdom for the first time.
The plane is designed to carry more than 500 passengers. A large number of people assembled at the airport to watch the 240 feet long aircraft.
The plane is as long as eight London buses and has wings huge enough to park 70 cars. Heathrow is only one of the 25 airports capable of handling the super jumbo.
By the year 2010, sixty airports will be made compatible. Singapore Airlines will be the first to use the A380 for commercial flights.
More than 800 million dollars had to be spent on Heathrow to make it A380 ready. They strengthened the runway, widened the roads and even built a special terminal pier to cope with the double decker plane.
"We don't expect any surprises because we went to Frankfurt already, it went very well, we went to Asia also, but you never know. So it’s better to check it out completely," Airbus Chief Operating Officer Charles Champion said.
And not just in size, the looks of A380 too promise to keep its passengers awestruck.
Frankfurt, Sydney, Dubai, Singapore and now London joins the list of cities ready and waiting for the superjumbo.
But with order numbers for the planes stalled at 159, it’s going to be a long wait for many wanting to go onboard the jumbo.
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