Super jumbo touches down in Perth
In a seamless landing, the Dubai-based Emirates 489-seat Airbus A380 touched down in Perth today.
The 489-seat plane landed in Perth about 5.30pm - five minutes ahead of schedule.
Huge crowds gathered at the viewing platform for the occasion, many filming it on their mobile phone or getting a closer look through binoculars.
The gathering also included dozens of young children, many of whom were perched on their parent's shoulders for a better look of the landing.
Emirates president Tim Clark described the plane as a passenger magnet.
The Emirates Airbus A380 upon landing in Perth. Picture: Lincoln Baker/The West Australian
And Sir Tim should know - Emirates has the world's biggest fleet, with 60 A380s in service and 80 more on order.
The start of a daily A380 service will significantly enhance WA's presence on the global tourist map because many travellers will only fly on the super jet.
The plane is crammed with features including a bar for premium classes, showers in first class, one of the most spacious economy cabins and wi-fi.
The A380 service will operate Flight EK420 from Dubai and Flight EK421 for the return service.
With the introduction of the A380, Emirates will drop one of its three daily flights.
There were huge crowds for the A380's landing in Perth. Picture: Lincoln Baker/The West Australian
The airline's commitment to the A380 service underscores its faith in the growth of WA as a global destination.
According to Emirates' divisional senior vice-president (commercial operations east) Barry Brown, Australia ranks in the top three countries on the airline's global network and represents an important market.
"We're dedicated to providing ongoing support for tourism and trade, which is evident in providing larger capacity aircraft between our two countries," he said.
The A380 will operate into Dubai International Airport's Concourse A, the world's first purpose-built A380 terminal, which connects with 36 A380 serviced destinations on the network.
The Emirates A380 that will serve Perth has a three-class configuration, with 398 seats in economy class on the lower deck, 76 fully flat-bed, mini-pods in business class and 14 first-class private suites on the upper deck.
With Airbus forecasting that Perth will become a mega-city by 2033, high-capacity planes such as the A380 will be essential.
Airbus' global market forecast, issued this week, shows international traffic serving the Australia South Pacific region will grow annually at 4.5 per cent.
Traffic to and from neighbouring developing markets will grow even quicker, with traffic to Asia growing 5.1 per cent a year, Africa 6.3 per cent and the Middle East 5.4 per cent, which are all well above the world average of 4.7 per cent.
Airbus said that domestically, traffic to and from Australia's busiest airports of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth was set to double, with an additional 90 million passengers a year by 2033.
