First commercial Airbus A380 arrives at IGI’s T3

New Delhi: An Emirates Airbus A380 flew in from Dubai with over 500 passengers, marking the world’s largest commercial aircraft’s arrival at the Terminal-3 (T3) of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) Thursday.

The Emirates EK516 landed around 3:00 pm in heavy downpour around the airport.

The Airbus A380 flight was part of a drill to reaffirm the operational readiness of the world’s sixth largest passenger terminal.

Emirates owns the largest fleet of A-380s and currently flies 11 of the aircraft connecting Middle East from destinations such as London, Toronto, Bangkok, Paris, Jeddah, Seoul, Sydney and Auckland.

It recently placed a $11.5 billion order with Airbus for an additional 32 A380s, taking the total firm order to 90 to signal the carrier’s confidence in the long-term growth of air travel.

The first time the A-380 landed at the Delhi airport was on the morning of May 6, 2007, as part of a test-cum-promotional visit for Airbus, flying in from its headquarters at Toulouse in France.