Man Bids $100,000-Plus For 1st Ticket Ever Sold On World’s Biggest Airplane
Posted September 4, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
How much would you be willing to spend for the bragging rights to a world first? You may not know the answer to that question, but an Australian named Julian Hayward does. He just doled out an eye popping US$100,380 for the very first passenger ticket ever sold on the premiere commercial flight of the Airbus A380. The real fare cost is only $3,391.
So why put out more than a small fortune to be the original passenger on the world’s newest and biggest plane? “It’s been so long since we’ve had an aeronautical feat of engineering [like] the 747 or even Concorde, I’m extremely excited to have the opportunity to be the first ever passenger on such a large feat of engineering,” the Sydney native explains.
The prize, which was put up on eBay last week, was open to the highest bidder – and Hayward won. He gets the best seat in the house when the Singapore Airlines plane makes its maiden voyage from its host country to Australia on October 25th. He also receives a special dinner and a trip to France to see the airline take delivery of the monster vehicle, the largest passenger jet ever built. It holds some 550 people and has a wing span wider than a football field. An earlier test flight drew huge crowds in the U.S. last March.
The money won’t actually be used to pay the fare. It’s going to be divided amongst a host of charities, with business and economy class tickets also up for grabs.
And while there’s little doubt Hayward will be enjoying his pampering on what just might hold the record for the world’s most expensive commercial plane flight, he’ll still need to shell out more if he plans to really make a journey of it. The 100-grand tickets he bought are one way only.
What’s it like inside the world’s biggest airplane?
Photo credit: Bodo Marks/AFP/Getty Images
