Singapore Airlines A380

On September 29, 2000, SIA announced an order for 25 Airbus A3XX (as the A380 was known at the time). The US$8.6 billion order comprised a firm order of 10 aircraft, with options on another 15 airframes. The order was confirmed by Singapore Airlines on July 12, 2001. In January 2005, the airline unveiled the slogan “First to Fly the A380 – Experience the Difference in 2006″, to promote itself as the first airline to take delivery of the A380-800, which was expected to take place in the second quarter of 2006. In June 2005, Airbus confirmed that due to unforeseen technical problems, initial deliveries of the Airbus A380 would be delayed by up to six months, with the first delivery now slated for November 2006

In February 2006, the first A380 in full Singapore Airlines livery was flown to Singapore, where it was displayed at Asian Aerospace 2006. On June 14, 2006, Singapore Airlines placed an initial order for the Boeing 787 as part of its future aircraft expansion. The order consisted of 20 787-9s and rights for 20 more. This order came one day after Airbus announced that the A380 superjumbo would be delayed by another 6 months.

A third delay was announced on 3 October 2006, pushing the initial delivery of the first A380 to October 2007.

On 25 October 2007, the first commercial A380 service, flight number SQ 380, flew 455 passengers from Singapore to Sydney, touching down in Sydney Airport at 3:24 pm local time, where it received significant attention from the media. The airline donated all revenue generated from the flight to three charities in a ceremony the next day in Sydney. SIA began regular services with the A380 on 28 October 2007.

The A380 now operates daily flights to Sydney (twice daily from 31 October), Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Zurich and double daily flights to London. Singapore Airlines momentarily operated a historical triple daily A380 flight between Singapore and London from the 23rd and the 28th of April 2010, to clear the backlog passengers stranded due to the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull a few days before.