The world's largest passenger jetliners -- two 555-seater double-decker Airbus A-380s -- are expected to make their debut in the United States with almost simultaneous landings in New York and Los Angeles on Monday in the biggest aviation spectacle since the landing of Concorde supersonic aircraft three decades ago.
The John F Kennedy Airport will receive the plane from Frankfurt, Germany, with Lufthansa's frequent flyers, reporters and news crews on board in the test flight to the United States before it starts commercial operations.
It will be piloted by four Lufthansa pilots and operate just like a commercial flight with all promised entertainment onboard.
The plane is eight-stories high with a wing span equal to a football field.
A similar plane from Toulouse, France, will land at the Los Angeles Airport with technicians and other officials.
The New York plane will go to Chicago for demonstration on Tuesday and return Wednesday to JFK and then to Frankfurt.
Analysts said they do not expect any increase in fare though some believe that over a period of time, the customers could see fares coming down further.
But the controversy about the passenger acceptability, especially those who fly frequently, is yet be settled as it awaits passenger reaction over next few years.
Some believe that frequent flyers would prefer frequent services rather than huge planes with limited flights.
Besides, they might prefer landing away from hubs, which could reduce overall time that is from the time a passenger goes for boarding to the time he comes out of the airport.
But the other school of thought is that busy airports will prefer bigger planes as that would in effect mean combing several flights into one. It would also lead to reduced pollution.
The Los Angeles Airport has fought hard to get the inaugural flight. Airbus had reportedly promised Los Angeles that the first A380 will land at its airport but then decided to shift to venue to New York.
The Los Angeles Airport strongly protested against this and Airbus relented and thus the planes will land around same time at the two airports.
The reason for Los Angeles Airport to insist on the first landing was that the area has some 100 suppliers of aircraft parts who have contributed some 1.3 billion dollars to the economy to Southern California since 2003.
Analysts say A380 makes half the noise of Boeing 747 and offer airline 20 per cent savings per seat compared with Boeing 747-400 but full flights would be needed to generate that kind of savings.
Airbus currently has orders for 156 A-380s and its impact would become clear over next few years as more and more planes take to skies.
