Saeed Al Khotani Saudi Gazette RIYADH – British Airways has announced that the airline's first Airbus A380 will fly on the “Red Carpet Route “ to Los Angeles, California. The home of Hollywood will be the inaugural destination for the first A380 to be operated by a UK airline.
The double-decker superjumbo is due to be delivered to British Airways in July and seats are now on sale for flights from October 15, 2013. Keith Williams, British Airways' chief executive, said: “This will be a very special premiere. The A380 is a great aircraft that has been developed with huge amounts of British engineering ingenuity. London and Los Angeles are two world-leading cities, and we are proud to be the first airline to connect them with the A380.” Paolo De Renzis, area commercial manager, Middle East and Central Asia, told Saudi Gazette that the announcement that “our first A380 will serve Los Angeles is fantastic news. It will benefit Saudi passengers flying to Los Angeles via London Heathrow with Los Angeles already being an extremely popular destination for our KSA customers.” “The A380 will be the largest aircraft in the British Airways fleet, accommodating 469 customers across four cabins. For our customers' comfort, we have evolved our First class cabin and enhanced both the main and upper deck cabins to feature the airline's current design.” The aircraft's innovative design makes it much quieter during take-off and landing and more fuel efficient than its predecessors. British Airways has ordered 12 for delivery by 2016 as part of a £5 billion investment over five years in new aircraft, smarter cabins, elegant lounges, and new technologies to make life more comfortable in the air and on the ground. The arrival of the A380 has entailed a multimillion pound redevelopment of British Airways' Heathrow engineering base to support maintenance of the world's largest commercial aircraft type. This included two 24-ton roof ‘eyebrows' being lifted into place in one of the hangars to raise the height of the entrance to accommodate the A380's 24-meter tail fin.
