Airbus reneges on California maiden voyage agreement

Airbus has decided to make it’s maiden overseas voyage with passengers to New York, rather than Los Angeles sparking outrage from city officials who believed the company reneged on a commitment for LAX to be its first stop. Airbus had told airport officials last year that it would bring the A380 to LAX on its maiden U.S. flight if the airport expedited construction of a new gate to accommodate the 555-seat jetliner. LAX rushed to build the gate and spent tens of millions of dollars getting ready for the A380 with the understanding that it would be the first U.S. airport to welcome the giant plane. This is a “slap at Los Angeles International Airport… and the city of Los Angeles,” Paul Haney, a deputy executive director of the Los Angeles airport agency, wrote in an e-mail to the chairman of Airbus North America, “We are taken aback, to put it mildly, that Airbus is not living up to its commitment to have the A380 touch down at LAX first” he said. Los Angeles, proud of its aviation history, and always ready for an excuse to party, had planned a huge media extravaganza to welcome the first A380 test flight, hoping it would give a public relations boost to both LAX and Airbus. Airbus claimed that it instead decided to take the A380 to New York and Chicago at the request of Lufthansa Airlines, whose crews have helped test the aircraft. A Lufthansa spokeswoman disagreed, and said that Airbus “is in charge … they are operationally responsible for these flights.”