Streamwood man enjoys maiden Airbus flight

The world's largest jetliner made aviation history Thursday, completing its first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney with 455 passengers, some of them ensconced in luxury suites with double beds.

The Airbus superjumbo lifted off from Singapore's Changi Airport and landed about seven hours later in Sydney. Also aboard Flight SQ380 was a crew of about 30, including four pilots.

Flight attendants handed out champagne and certificates to passengers, some of whom paid tens of thousands of dollars in an online auction for seats.

"It was an experience of a lifetime I will never forget," said Streamwood village trustee and aviation enthusiast Jason Speer, several hours after the maiden voyage.

Speer was in Sydney at about 5 p.m. Thursday Chicago time awaiting the second leg of the trip taking him back to Singapore. He paid $9,000 for the roundtrip flight.

"It was wild," he said. "It was incredible."

Speer said the inside of the plane doesn't feel as big as it looks from the outside because of bulkheads and suites.

"It doesn't feel like you are flying with 500 people," he said.

A surprise was how quiet it was. The only negative aspect was the plane needed more storage space, Speer said. He walked around during the flight to see different seating classes, including the suites. He said the suites are a bit smaller than they appear in photos.

"You can easily see into them, even when they are closed. The doors are only so high; you can see over them," he said.

Speer, 32, a manufacturing executive, said the seats and service were incredible. He is due back home Sunday morning.

The double-decker A380 ends the nearly 37-year reign of the Boeing 747 jumbojet as the world's most spacious passenger plane. Its European manufacturer, Airbus SAS, also claims the A380 is the most fuel efficient and quietest passenger jet ever built.

Thomas Lee, who was also on the Boeing 747's first commercial flight from New York to London in 1970, described the latest experience as "spectacular … fantastic … incredible."

"It was a festive atmosphere, I can tell you. Everybody was excited. People were up out of their seats in the aisle. It was quite difficult for the cabin crew to do their job, … not like a normal flight I can assure you," he said.

The A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines on Oct. 15, nearly two years behind schedule after billions of dollars in cost overruns for Airbus. Still, the wait was worth it, says Singapore Airlines, which got the exclusivity of being the plane's sole operator for 10 months.

"This is indeed a new milestone in the timeline of aviation," said Chew Choon Seng, chief executive of Singapore Airlines in a speech before the departure.

The Boeing 747 jumbo jet generally carries about 400 passengers. The A380, as tall as a seven-story building with each wing big enough to hold 70 cars, is capable of carrying 853 passengers in an all-economy class configuration.

Singapore Airlines opted for 471 seats in three classes: 12 suites, 60 business class and 399 economy class. Each suite, enclosed by sliding doors, is fitted with a leather upholstered seat, a table, a 23-inch flat screen TV, laptop connections and a range of office software. A separate bed folds up into the wall.

On the upper deck, business class seats can turn into wide flat beds, while the economy class seats on both decks have more leg and knee room, the carrier says. Business class passengers also have a bar area.

Singapore Airlines auctioned most of the seats on the inaugural flight on eBay, raising $1.26 million for charity. The highest bidder was Briton Julian Hayward who bought two suite seats for $100,380. He was the first passenger to board. The airline has ordered 19 A380s, hoping to benefit from a boom in air travel that has seen global air traffic growing 5 to 10 percent a year.

Not all analysts are convinced the plane, which has a list price of $320 million, will be a success.

"I see there's some demand for the A380, but it's an expensive way to address a small market," said Standard & Poor's Equity Research analyst Shukor Yusof.

Shukor said the market was set to be dominated by mid-sized, long haul two-engine aircraft, such as the rival Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which offers greater fuel efficiency than four-engine jets of the same size. He pointed out that orders for the 787 have exceeded 700. The A380 has received 165 orders to date.