India is no longer out of bounds for the world’s biggest commercial airliner — Airbus A-380. Aviation minister Ajit Singh has allowed the double-decker aircraft to fly to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
The move could end the over four-year wait of airlines such as the Emirates, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines to fly the A-380 to India and bring it to the doorstep of the great Indian globetrotter, who currently has to travel overseas to fly in the super-jumbo.
The aviation ministry said foreign airlines will be allowed to deploy the A-380 within the existing flying rights or bilaterals that India has with their parent companies. This means flying this 580- (in three class configuration) to-850-seater (in all economy seating) plane could mean cutting down frequency of their flights to India. Sources say airlines will seek more flying rights to deploy this plane to India.
India had been sitting for long on airlines’ request to bring this plane here as Indian carriers felt this could affect their fortunes. They feared the “wow factor” of the big bird would wean away traffic from their bread and butter routes like Delhi to Dubai, Frankfurt and Singapore.
While Delhi’s newest runway and terminal 3 have been ready since 2010 for this aircraft, Mumbai has recently got an A-380-compliant terminal. The Hyderabad and Bangalore airports too have infrastructure for this aircraft.
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