Singapore's new airport terminal designed for A3XX

Singapore's new airport terminal designed for A3XX

SINGAPORE (AP): The new passenger terminal being built at Singapore's Changi Airport will be custom-made for Airbus Industrie's gigantic A3XX jetliner, a Cabinet minister said Saturday.

The 1.3 billion-Singapore dollar (US$857 million) facility will be the third passenger terminal at Changi, one of Asia's busiest airports.

"Its aerobridges and other supporting infrastructure will be specially designed to handle the superjumbo of the 21st century, the A3XX," said Yeo Cheow Tong, Singapore's Minister for Communications and Information Technology.

The new terminal will allow for an additional 20 million passengers a year, bringing the airport's total capacity to 64 million passengers, Yeo said in a speech at the terminal's groundbreaking ceremony Saturday.

National carrier Singapore Airlines last month announced it will buy up to 25 A3XX jetliners in a deal worth $8.6 billion, giving a huge boost to the European aircraft maker in its bitter battle with U.S. rival Boeing Co.

Delivery of the planes to Singapore will start in 2006. Singapore Airlines claims it will be the first carrier in the world to operate the new aircraft, which has been likened to a flying cruise ship.

The A3XX, able to seat at least 555 passengers, will be the largest passenger jet ever built.

Airbus hopes the superjumbo will break Boeing's stranglehold on the long-range, high capacity market, which Boeing has long dominated with its 747 - a plane which seats just over 400 people.

Seattle-based Boeing in the mid-1990s considered building its own superjumbo, but engineers deemed the plan impractical.

Airbus Industrie is based in Toulouse, France. It is a co- owned by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and Britain's BAE Systems.