São Paulo – The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, will be allowed to fly regularly to São Paulo starting Sunday (1st). São Paulo’s International Airport, in the city of Guarulhos, has prepared itself to receive the aircraft, with adaptations in landing and takeoff strips and taxiways. The first company to bring the superjumbo to Brazil will be Emirates Airlines, from Dubai, which will perform an experimental flight on November 14th.
According to information released this Thursday (29th) by GRU Airport, the company that manages the airport, the terminal was granted authorization by the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) to receive the aircraft. The authorization was released in the Wednesday (28th) edition of the Official Federal Gazette.
According to information from the GRU Airport, for the A380 to be able to operate in the Guarulhos airport, four taxiways were widened. A specific taxiway for the aircraft was standardized and the sides of one of the strips were widened in 7.5 meters on each side. The strip for landing and takeoffs are, now, 60 meters wide.
These changes were required to receive the aircraft, which have a wingspan of 79.8 meters. The changes were part of the airport’s concession contract, which were transferred for the management of the GRU Airport in an auction in 2012. The Terminal 3, destined to international flights was opened last year with five parking positions of this aircraft, each one with two bridges that are fit to service the aircraft’s two decks.
Emirates Airline had said in advance that it would operate a flight with the A380 in the route between Dubai and São Paulo in November. The company said that the A380 will land in São Paulo on November 14th approximately at 7:30 PM and take off on November 15 at 1:25 AM.
In a statement, the company said that this is a “single operation” with the aircraft and that it still has no plans to insert this aircraft in the route Dubai to São Paulo. It will use the superjumbo jet in November for the celebration of the 8th year of operations of the company in Brazil, which started in October 2007, and also because on November 15th São Paulo will host the Formula 1 Grand Prix, an event in which the company is one of the sponsors. Other two European airlines already declared their plans to operate their São Paulo route with the A380.
Emirates’s A380 models have 14 first class suites, 76 business class seats and 401 seats in economy class. Emirates is the world’s largest A380 operator, with a fleet of 67 aircrafts. Currently, the company flies to Brazil with the Boeing 777-300ER, which can carry up to 364 passengers in three different classes. The company also operates flights between Dubai and Buenos Aires with a transfer in Rio de Janeiro.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
