T3 gets world’s largest aircraft
A “superjumbo” Airbus A-380 operated by Gulf carrier Emirates made a safe landing despite heavy rainfall at the New Delhi IGI airport on account of which the pilot decided to “go around” over the airport once before landing.
This was the second landing of the A-380 at Delhi in two years but the first one with passengers on board. The flight from Dubai with 543 passengers on board, which was initially supposed to land at 2.30 pm, landed at about 3.30 pm with top civil aviation ministry officials and the director general of civil aviation watching.
The passengers then disembarked at the new integrated Terminal-3 building to a warm welcome.
In a statement, the civil aviation ministry stated, “five flights got slightly delayed as bad weather and heavy rains around 3 pm prevented landing and the pilots decided to go around till it got better. This includes Emirates A-380.”
ATC sources said the pilot of the aircraft wanted to “go around” once to check whether the runway was okay for landing in view of the wet conditions.
Soon after the aircraft landed, a dog entered the apron area but was chased away by security officials. This, along with the heavy rainfall, delayed the aerobridge docking for some time.
Since the A-380 is the largest commercial aircraft in the world, air traffic controllers at Dehi increased the horizontal separation between the A-380 and aircraft following behind.
As an ATC source explained, “The A-380 is a very heavy aircraft which can result in weight turbulence in air on lighter aircraft that are following behind. As per ICAO guidelines, there should be more horizontal distance than usual which was done.”
Emirates is now planning to operate more flights of the A-380 to and from the T-3B in the coming months with the requisite permission now that the first A-380 flight with passengers has landed.
Emirates' luxurious A-380 has private suites for the first class passengers, and shower spas and an onboard lounge for first class and business class passengers.
The in-flight entertainment system has more than 1,000 channels of on-demand entertainment, including 200 movies, 100 TV channels, more than 500 audio channels, 100 video games. More airlines that have ordered the A-380 including Kingfisher Airlines may also follow suit soon.
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