BIGGEST JET SOON A HUB REGULAR
A380-800 holds 469 passengers
British Airways’ delayed Airbus A380 flights to Logan International Airport are set to start tomorrow as the first regularly scheduled service TRANSPORTATION to Boston aboard the world’s largest passenger airliner.
The first of British Airways’ thrice-weekly flights of the 469seat, double-decker, wide-body plane is expected to arrive from London’s Heathrow Airport around 1:30 p.m.
The other flights will operate on Mondays and Fridays.
British Airways’ A380-800 has four cabins, and its upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage. The plane has 50 percent more floor space and 60 percent more headroom than the Boeing 747-400, and its wings are 54 percent larger. The A380 measures 238 feet, 8 inches long, with a wingspan of 261 feet, 10 inches, and a height of 79 feet.
British Airways had planned to begin its A380 Boston service in February, but postponed the start as work continued on its new passenger club lounge next to the gates in Logan’s Terminal E, where the A380s will arrive. The airline currently uses Boeing 747, 777 and 787 aircraft for the route.
Logan has welcomed A380s in the past, but those flights were either diverted from other airports or occasional arrivals to change out planes.
“We were accommodating them, but obviously it wasn’t the ideal situation,” said Thomas Glynn, CEO of the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan. A380 boarding and deplaning works better and faster when there are two jet bridges per plane rather than one, he added.
But Massport recently added a pair of jet bridges to each of the three gates in Terminal E to accommodate the aircraft. The additions were among $186 million in Terminal E improvements that included reconfigured and expanded waiting areas.
“We were approached by three different airlines several years ago about their interest in having the option of using the A380 either on a regular basis or on a periodic basis,” Glynn said.
Emirates and Lufthansa are the other two airlines. Emirates, which flies between Boston and Dubai, tested Logan’s new A380 gate improvements on a one-off A380 flight in January at Massport’s invitation. The airline normally uses Boeing 777s for its Boston flights.
“We wanted to make sure that everything works, and that everything lines up, and also that the ground crews are familiar with the new procedures,” Glynn said.
Emirates and Lufthansa, which has flights to Germany (Frankfurt and Munich) from Boston, haven’t committed to starting dates for their A380 service to Logan, but Glynn expects them to begin this year.