Singapore Airlines has scheduled the world’s first flight of the Airbus A380, flight SQ380 to Sydney, Australia on Thursday, October 25th, with a return flight on Friday, October 26th. Seats on the flight will be sold at auction on eBay, with all proceeds going to charity. Regular service between Sydney and Singapore will begin soon after.
Airbus will deliver the first A380 aircraft to Singapore Airlines on October 15th in Toulouse, France. The plane will then be flown to Changi Airport in Singapore, the world’s first home airport for the A380. The time between the plane’s arrival in Singapore and the charity flight will be used for flight and ground crew familiarization.
After the auction, one third of the proceeds will go to Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders. Local charities in Singapore and Sydney will benefit from the remainder, with one-third going to Singapore’s Community Chest. The remaining third will be shared by two Sydney hospitals, the Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
The eBay auction starts on August 27th and will continue through September 10th. Seats spread across both the outbound and return legs will be sold progressively through the time period and final bid dates will be staggered. The plane has 471 seats in Economy, Business, and Suites classes. Seats in all three will be available in the auction. Bids are for one-way tickets, so two bids will be required to fly both legs on the first flight of the A380. Bidding will be for single, double, and multiple seats.
Each bidder will require a free eBay user ID and the names and passport numbers of the passengers. Bidders on Business Class and Suite Class seats, and anyone bidding over $1000 US dollars in the Economy Class must be pre-qualified. Requiring pre-qualification avoids having prices pushed up by spurious bidders. Bidders can submit pre-qualification information online. Auctionwire, the auction management agency for this event, has set up several methods for pre-qualifying and providing security deposits.
Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Chew Choon Seng, said “We are overwhelmed by the support of the community — from all over the world — for the charity auction. And I would like to thank the many partners and service providers that have followed the lead of our fuel supplier, ExxonMobil, and eBay, in donating their services for the First Flight’s charitable causes.”
For information on packages, pre-qualification, and obtaining an eBay user ID, visit www.singaporeair.com/a380.
