America got a taste of the world's largest commercial airplane yesterday, when two Airbus A380 superjumbos touched town in New York and Los Angeles. The double decker plane seats 555, Airbus kicked off a series of exercises to ensure that the giant aircraft is compatible with major U.S. airports, which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades to accommodate it. New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport are spending about $300-million (U.S.) to widen runways and provide special docking equipment for the plane, which has a wingspan almost the length of an American football field. The flight to Los Angeles from Toulouse, France, was operated with Australia's Qantas, carrying only its flight crew and a squad of engineers.

The A380's launch has been overdue since 2 years which has cost the company billions of dollars.