Malaysia Airlines and Airbus together marked a tremendous achievement earlier, with the hand-over of the 100th A380 to MAS at Airbus’ Henri Ziegler Delivery Centre in Toulouse, France.
The aircraft is the sixth A380 for MAS.
“We are delighted that our 100th A380 delivery is to Malaysia Airlines as this offers us an early glimpse into the longer term shape of aviation,” said Fabrice Brégier, Airbus president and chief executive.
“We see a growing demand from dynamic, competitive airlines which include MAS for larger aircraft, with many markets and routes, and particularly inside the fast developing Asia-Pacific region, being perfectly suited to A380s.”
Now in its sixth year of industrial service, the A380 is flying with nine world class airlines.
To date, the global fleet has carried some 36 million passengers in 100,000 flights.
Previous generation Very Large Aircraft (VLA 400 seats and above) would have required 140,000 flights.
This reduction in flights brings essential relief to airport-congestion and our surroundings.
The corresponding saving of five.7 million tonnes of CO2, demonstrates the A380 generates more revenue whilst minimising emissions and noise.
The A380 fleet performs over 140 flights per day and carries over one and a half million people every month.
Passengers can hop on board one of many A380s, that are either setting out or landing every six minutes at one of the vital 32 international airports where it operates to this point.
On top of those, greater than 50 other airports have become prepared to house the A380 and answer the airlines’ need for more A380 destinations.
Over the subsequent twenty years, greater than 1,700 VLA together with the A380 may have been delivered. Asia Pacific leads demand (45 per cent) for these high capacity aircraft, followed by the center East (23 per cent) and Europe (19 per cent).
Typically seating 525 passengers in three classes, the aircraft is in a position to flying 8,500 nautical miles or 15,700 kilometres non-stop, carrying more people at lower price and with less impact at the environment.
The spacious, quiet cabin and smooth ride have made the A380 a company favourite with passengers, leading to higher load factors wherever it flies.
Since 2006 the A380 has registered repeat orders by satisfied customers per annum, bringing the whole order book thus far to 262 from 20 customers.