Qatar Airways inducts first Airbus A380 Super Jumbo

Qatar Airways took delivery of the first of its 10 Airbus A380 aircraft on order, in the presence of Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Grou...

Qatar Airways took delivery of the first of its 10 Airbus A380 aircraft on order, in the presence of Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, and Fabrice Brégier, Airbus President and CEO, at Hamburg, Germany.
Qatar Airways will receive four A380S before the end of this year. The A380s cabin will seat a total of 517 people – 461 in economy, 48 in Business and eight in First Class, featuring the widest first-class seats in the industry. The aircraft has two full-length passenger decks - First and Business Class cabins will both be located on the aircraft’s upper deck, along with a special lounge area for premium passengers.

 The First Class seats feature a 90-inch pitch with a fully flat bed. Business Class seats feature a pitch of 52 inches which also recline to fully flat beds.Economy Class passengers benefit from the most spacious A380 arrangement flying in the skies, with a pitch of 32 inches spread in a 10-seats-across layout.

In-flight entertainment on board is state-of-the-art using the Thales mainframe Top Series Avant system with features such as an Android open platform with intuitive swipe functions and customised HD monitor of up to 26 inches in First Class.

Qatar Airways is the 12th world class carrier to fly the A380. The airline’s first A380 will make its debut on the popular London Heathrow route, from Hamad International in Doha, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle.

With 318 orders so far by 19 customers the A380 captures 90 percent of the Very Large Aircraft market. With the delivery today, the global A380 fleet mounts up to 142 aircraft, having accumulated over 1.5 million flight hours on some 180,000 commercial flights. 

To date over 65 million passengers have already enjoyed the unique experience of flying on board an A380. Every four minutes, an A380 either takes off or lands at one of the 41 airports where it operates today and the network is constantly growing.

In the last quarter of 2014, Qatar will start receiving its first A350 XWB aircraft as the world’s launch customer.