Five long-haul jets from one airline on one route at the same time – that’s a rarity. Such a convoy flight by Singapore Airlines is now also a premiere in Barcelona.
The fact that two Airbus A380s and three Airbus A350s are in the air at the same time is actually nothing special. But the fact that everyone is traveling on the same route, and this does not even include the hub, is extraordinary. That happened on Monday (March 14).
The machines with the registration numbers 9V-SMY, 9V-SKU, 9V-SMV, 9V-SMW and 9V-SKV were all en route simultaneously on the route from Los Angeles International to Barcelona. Flight tracking services could see the five big Singapore Airlines planes moving in single file through the air. And it wasn’t jets that were brought back from the desert after the Corona break.
Charter flight for private customers
A spokesman for Singapore Airlines revealed that it was an “unprecedented special offer” for a customer. The airline does not want to say who the client is. Only one thing is clear: he must be quite wealthy to be able to charter five long-haul planes at once.
The anonymous customer definitely needed a lot of seats. With two Airbus A380s and two A350s, 1,500 passengers were transported simultaneously from Los Angeles to the Catalan capital, the spokesman for Singapore Airlines continued. It was a first for the airport. Singapore Airlines had never flown to Barcelona El Prat with a super jumbo.
Challenge in the air and on the ground
The fact that two of the planes arrived on the same day made the airport – and the plane spotters on site – even happier. But it was also a challenge for the pilots on site. You have to because of the Large aircraft wake vortices a greater distance between take-offs and landings. On the ground, the wingspan restricted the usable taxiways.