Qantas takes delivery of its first Airbus A380 superjumbo this week as it looks forward to building a fleet of fuel efficient aircraft to combat an environment of high fuel costs.
After a delay of nearly two years, Airbus will relinquish the double-decker behemoth to Qantas at ahand-over ceremony in Toulouse, France on Friday.
The superjumbo, painted in Qantas livery, will leave the Airbus factory about midnight on Friday (central European summer time) and touch down in Sydney on Sunday September 21 at 0900 AEST.
Rattling around on board the biggest flying kangaroo aircraft yet will be Qantas staff and about 30 media representatives.
The Australian flag carrier will become the third operator of the world's largest passenger airliner after Singapore Airlines, which has received five of its 19 superjumbos on order, and Dubai-based Emirates, which has ordered 58 A380s and has possession of one so far.
Qantas, which has ordered 20 of the four engine A380s, is putting the giant plane up against the Boeing 777-300ERs that Virgin Blue's international offshoot, V Australia, will fly on the trans-Atlantic route from this Christmas.
Qantas' superjumbo, which could carry as many as 850 passengers in an all-economy configuration, will make its debut commercial flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles on October 20 and its first flight out of Sydney on October 24, also bound for LA.
The carrier expects to take delivery of two more superjumbos by the end of this year and plans to progressively introduce A380 services on its Sydney to London route from early 2009.
