In a historic first, the world’s largest passenger plane—an Airbus A380—is about to land at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru around 3:40 pm (local time) Friday. Emirates’ flight EK562 took off from Dubai (DXB) at 10:11 am today and will be the first Superjumbo to touch down in the Karnataka capital.
The Emirates A380 landing, earlier planned for October 30, was moved up over two weeks. Now the double-deck wide-body airliner will make its maiden landing on the South runway Bengaluru on October 14—16 days ahead of schedule—before doubling back for the 4-hour trip to Dubai at 6:40 pm later this evening.
“Our engineers and operations team are testing infrastructure and processes. We are waiting for the big day with bated breath,” the Bengaluru airport’s official Twitter account said Wednesday.
The iconic aircraft has previously flown passengers in and out of Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM)—which makes Bengaluru the third Indian city where the plane will have touched down.
Aside from these mega hubs, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad is the only other facility equipped to handle the beast.
A380 is the world’s biggest passenger aeroplane in operation and can practically seat 525 passengers. However, it has a certified room for up to 853 people.
Airbus discontinued the production line altogether in 2019 in favour of fuel-efficient, twin-engine aircraft and sold a total of 251 planes to airlines around the world.
The last of these was purchased in 2021 by Emirates—which accounts for 118 of all A380s.
