Airbus A380

The world’s biggest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, left Paris for an inaugural regular flight to Singapore on Tuesday but an air of tragedy displaced celebrations after an airline disaster on Monday.

The superjumbo took off from Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris to return to Singapore, marking its first flight out of continental Europe to complete a return trip, but after one minute of silence instead of the planned ceremony.

The aircraft took off with almost every seat filled, and among the passengers were 35 members of the French national rugby team, travelling in business class for a tour of the Pacific region.

The team’s general manager Jo Maso told AFP: “It is a great honour to inaugurate this aircraft, adding that he was “not worried at all” after the accident on Monday, and that “air travel is one of the safest ways of travelling.”

The spokesman for Singapore Airlines, which operated the flight, asked for a minute of silence for the 228 passengers and crew missing aboard an Air France Airbus airliner lost over the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.

Most of the French officials invited, including Transport Minister Jean-Louis Borloo and the head of French airports operator ADP, Pierre Graff, cancelled their attendance at the event.

The missing aircraft, an Airbus A330, had been due to arrive at the same airport on Monday morning on a flight from Brazil.

The A380 superjumbo jet can carry up to 853 passengers. But Singapore Airlines has chosen to offer plenty of space, fitting the airliner with only 471 seats, in three classes: 12 suites with armchairs one metre (39 inches) wide that can be made to recline full length, 60 seats in business class and 399 in economy class.

The spokesman said the plane had taken off with 93 percent of the seats filled and that nearly all of the seats in business and economy class had been sold.

Boarding took longer for the flight out of Roissy than out of Singapore because only two gangways were provided instead of three to give access to the two decks. The process here took an hour instead of 40 minutes in Singapore.

The airport authorities intend to make a third gangway available to reach the upper floor before March 2010.

Singapore Airlines already runs A380 flights from Singapore to Sydney, London and Tokyo.

The flight left Singapore on Monday at 2140 GMT and arrived in Paris at 0440 GMT.

Singapore Airlines says it plans daily Singapore-Paris flights using A380s, of which it was the first airline to take delivery in October 2007. An airline source said there had been a delay in the delivery of one new A380 intended for the route.

It has ordered 19 of the long range jets and has options for six others.

Other airports that have received A380 aircraft are Sydney, London, Tokyo, Dubai, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Auckland, Toronto and Bangkok.