A380 Approved for Standard Runways

During the recent A380 world tour, the aircraft landed in heavy rain at Taipei, Taiwan on June 8. Airbus has flight-tested the A380 exhaustively and has performed a thorough airport operational evaluation for the aircraft that has led to the FAA and Europe's EASA approving A380 operations from 45-meter-wide runways, standard at most commercial-service airports worldwide. Credit: Airbus S.A.S.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have approved the Airbus A380 to operate on runways with widths of 150 feet (45 meters) or more.

The standard width of the runways at most of the world's airline-service airports is 45 meters.

"This aircraft has been shown to be safely controllable and to be compliant with applicable airworthiness requirements when operating on runways with a width of 45 meters (150 feet) or more," stated James J. Ballough, director of the FAA's Flight Standards Service, in an official correspondence to Airbus dated July 19, 2007.

The approval has resulted from a unique airport operational evaluation that Airbus has performed for the superjumbo A380, the heaviest passenger aircraft ever built. The evaluation included airport compatibility checks, route proving campaigns and dedicated flight-testing in cooperation with EASA and the FAA.

"Full airport compatibility has always been a key design driver for this new flagship of the 21 century," said Mario Heinen, Airbus' executive vice president for the A380 program.

"Since the very beginning of the A3XX concept phase in 1996, Airbus has established a sustainable dialogue with regulators, airports, airlines, ground handlers and pilots, as well as trade-associations, with the objective to make (the A380) fully compliant with the average airport environment. We are pleased to see once more that this approach is bearing fruit," said Heinen.

The A380 has already visited more than 45 airports. By 2011, more than 70 airports will be ready for A380 operations, according to Airbus.

Passenger-cabin-wiring design problems caused a two-year delay in A380 deliveries to airlines, but Airbus says it has the situation in hand and is now progressing well on completing the first A380s for customers.

The first A380 for Singapore Airlines (SIA) arrived in Toulouse in mid-July after installation of all the fittings for the passenger cabin was completed. Airbus is submitting the aircraft to thorough final checks before delivering it to SIA in October.

Completion of subsequent aircraft earmarked for delivery to Singapore Airlines, Emirates Airlines and Qantas also is well on track, says Airbus.

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