Singapore Airlines has taken delivery of its fourth Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane. After a delivery flight from Toulouse in France, the aircraft arrived in Singapore on Sunday 27 April. It will now undergo some pre-entry into service work in Singapore.

The addition of this fourth aircraft into its fleet will allow Singapore Airlines to commence daily A380 flights to Tokyo Narita on Tuesday 20 May 2008.

Tokyo is the airline's third A380 destination outside Singapore, and its first one in Asia. Daily services to other destinations commenced on 25 October 2007 (Singapore-Sydney) and 18 March 2008 (Singapore-London).

The A380 is fitted with the luxurious Singapore Airlines Suites, the 4-abreast Business Class and a new, more comfortable Economy class cabin. Service to Tokyo Narita (SQ636) will commence from the early morning of Tuesday 20 May, returning as SQ637 on the same day. The A380 will operate this pattern thereafter on a daily basis.

The quietest large passenger aircraft ever built, the A380 delivers substantial fuel burn reductions per seat mile over the next largest aircraft and allows for the addition of extra capacity to congested airports, like London and Tokyo. The Singapore Airlines A380 is powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.

Singapore Airlines is the first to fly the A380, and currently the only airline in the world operating the aircraft. The airline has firm orders for a further 15 A380s and options on six more. -The Nation, ANN