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01/19/2005:

"Casinos, gyms and double beds - but will enough airlines get on board?"

In a blizzard of dry ice, operatic music and multiethnic dancing, the world's largest passenger plane made its first public appearance at a vast airfield on the outskirts of Toulouse yesterday.

Bathed in soft purple light, the Airbus A380 "superjumbo" dwarfed a crowd of 5,000 guests including Tony Blair and his fellow heads of government from France, Germany and Spain.

The doubledecker aircraft, which can carry up to 850 passengers, and has a wingspan of 90 metres, is billed as the biggest development in mass market air travel since the introduction of the Boeing 747 in 1969.

Virgin Atlantic, which has ordered six of the planes, is planning to use the extra space for in-flight gyms, beauty salons and casinos. Other airlines, including Emirates, intend to install showers and private rooms for first-class passengers.

With Welsh-made wings, a German fuselage and a Spanish tail, the aircraft is regarded as a symbol of European industrial cooperation. Its completion is a huge boost to Airbus in its long-running transatlantic battle with America's Boeing to be the world's top manufacturer of passenger aircraft.

Mr Blair described the superjumbo as "simply stunning" and said it marked "an unprecedented level of industrial cooperation between European countries".
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

$2 billion in debt relief, $30 billion for their newest toy.