World's biggest plane touches down at Heathrow

Vaster than a jumbo jet, the future of air travel flew into Britain today - showing off its gigantic proportions and prompting concern about its impact on climate change.

The product of a grand European alliance, the Airbus A380, touched down at a specially reinforced runway at Heathrow with a Union Jack flag proudly fluttering from the cockpit.

Among the waiting dignitaries, Gordon Brown hailed the four-nation aeroplane as an example of "Europe at its best" and a triumph of British engineering.

With a wingspan of 79 metres (almost the length of a football pitch), the Airbus A380 is by far and away the biggest plane in the world.

It can fly further, cheaper and sometimes greener than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, seating up to 840 economy passengers compared with a jumbo's 416, though most airlines favour the less environmentally friendly seating of 480.

Its development opens the era of superjumbo planes capable of matching the 21st Century's rapacious desire for travel, for business and pleasure.

It also poses fresh questions about whether its enormous arrival will lead to more passengers flying round the world in bigger jets, contributing to aviation emissions that threaten catastrophic and irreversible global warming.

Airlines are expected to pack the A380's decks with bars, lounges, beauty salons and duty-free shops, giving more of the experience of a cruise ship than a cramped jet.

The plane was developed and assembled in Toulouse, France, as part of the grand £10 billion European Airbus consortium.

Components came from four countries - Germany, Spain, France and Britain, which supplied the wings.

Flying into the UK from the Berlin Air Show, the British test pilot Captain Ed Strongman had detoured over two Airbus UK plants, Filton in Bristol and Broughton in north Wales, where the plane's wings are made.

His aircraft glided to a halt outside Heathrow's £105 million pier six at Terminal 3, which has been specially adapted to embark and disembark 2,000 passengers a day from the twin-deck plane.

Airport workers stopped work to applaud the arrival of the Airbus.

A relieved Airbus UK managing director, Ian Gray, said: "I'm very pleased that our iconic performer has lived up to its big billing."

Alongside the Chancellor of the Exchequer were the heads of some of the 16 airlines that have ordered the aircraft, which will go into service in December.

Mr Brown declared: "This is a great day for London, a great day for Britain and British manufacturing, and a great day for European co-operation. I feel proud to be here. This is a triumph of European co-operation and British science. "The A380 will become one of the most popular planes ever produced."

He congratulated Rolls-Royce, whose engines powered the A380 for producing, some of the "quietest and cleanest engines" ever made.

According to Airbus, the A380 will produce 12 per cent fewer emissions per passenger than a jumbo jet.

Environmentalists welcomed the advance in technology, but warned that the Airbus still had the capacity to worsen climate change by encouraging air travel.

Thanks to the cheap flights boom, flying is predicted to become the biggest source of Britain's carbon emissions during the next 30 years.

Richard Dyer, aviation campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "In an ideal world if you said we are not going to increase the amount of people who fly and they all fly on an Airbus A380 it would result in a reduction in emissions," he said.

"But unfortunately this is part of a trend in air travel - a plane that is a bit cleaner and more efficient comes along every 30 years.

If you could come along with that kind of [better] plane every year than that would be OK," he added, noting the 2 per cent rise in air travel year after year.

- INDEPENDENT