Lufthansa’s Airbus A380 returned safely from its first intercontinental
flights with passengers, landing punctually at Frankfurt.Flight LH 8945 touched down as scheduled at 10.28 hrs on Runway 25R.
Aboard the flight from New York were 429 passengers, 23 flight
attendants and four captains. The take-off weight of the wide-bodied
aircraft on its flight to America was 444 tonnes. On Monday the A380
landed on US soil for the first time as part of the route-proving
exercise being conducted jointly by Lufthansa and Airbus.

Lufthansa CEO and Chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber was at Frankfurt to greet
the A380 crew. “We are very proud that the first A380 flight to the US
was a Lufthansa flight. In a reference to Lufthansa’s pioneering
achievement 79 years ago, when it completed the world’s first east-west
crossing of the North Atlantic against the jet stream, he added: “With
the A380’s first flight to the USA we are continuing our tradition - and
we are again writing aviation history.”

 

Commenting on the extensive practical tests on the A380, which have all
been very successful, Mayrhuber added: “We will now continue working on
perfecting the operational procedures for the A380 on the ground and in
the air. When Lufthansa puts its new flagship aircraft into scheduled
service we want our customers to be able to enjoy an outstanding flight
experience where everything runs smoothly, right down to the last
detail.”

 

The Lufthansa CEO and Chairman was not alone in his glowing praise for
the new wide-bodied jet. “The A380 is an impressive aircraft. In the US
we received a really euphoric reception,” said Captain Carl Sigel,
Executive VP Operations, Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, after the landing
in Frankfurt.

 

The route-proving programme will continue this week when the A380 takes
off for Hong Kong on Friday 23 March, followed by a flight to Washington
on Sunday 25 March. The route-proving programme will end with the return
flight of the A380 with the serial number MSN 007 to Toulouse via Munich
on Wednesday 28 March.

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