Relax - Review of MAS A380: In a class of its own

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The scene in which Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York Goldenblatt and Miranda Hobbes flew in for their trip to Abu Dhabi in the movie, Sex & The City 2, may not give you an accurate idea of what Malaysia Airlines' brand new Airbus A380 superjumbo will exactly offer you.

I am not sure whether they rode in an A380, but the girls' First Class cabins looked impressive. Maybe the Arabs have a better way of defining luxury but for regular travellers, the new MAS A380 is definitely several notches higher in terms of quality and luxurious feel than its present fleet of aircraft. After all, the Airbus A380 superjumbo is the largest airliner in the world.

Malaysia Airlines is the latest carrier to start flying the A380. Of the six A380s ordered, the first one arrived on June 29 from Toulouse, France, and was unveiled the same day.

WOW FACTOR

As soon as I boarded the plane at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, I felt a sense of wow-ness and this was just by looking at its sheer size as well as its interior.

It has 494 seats in three classes - First, Business and Economy. There are only eight First Class seats, 66 in Business and 420 in Economy on the upper and main decks.

The First Class seats come in fiery red and are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration so passengers will have the luxury of space.

You will be on cloud nine too when you settle down to a good night's sleep as each seat is 101.6cm wide, with a full flat-bed length of 226cm. If sleep eludes you, there is the large video screen (58.4cm - the largest in aircraft fleet) for watching movies or other programmes that come with high fidelity sound, thanks to premium noise-cancelling headphones.

TOP CLASS

First Class passengers also get a wide selection of gourmet meals for pre-order on board with Chef-On-Call service. There are monthly specials, too, with gourmet fare such as lobster and lamb shank.

Business Class also offers huge seats, which can double up as beds. Each seat has a 43.2cm video screen, individual power supply and a USB port for several devices, including laptops. Also available is a personal stowage compartment so you can keep your valuable items close to you.

At 44cm width, Economy Class seats are slightly bigger than those in other planes. There's also a wider selection of the latest entertainment on the 126.9cm video screen in front of each seat.

Passengers can also expect a step-up in service.

The A380 flies KL to London direct, three times a week (Tuesday, Friday, Sunday) starting this month. From August, MAS plans to fly the route daily after it receives its second superjumbo.

Review of MAS A380: In a class of its own

New Straits Times | Wed, Aug 1 2012

The new MAS A380 Airbus is bigger, better and a step-up in all departments.