Yesterday, SIA - the first commercial airline to fly the Airbus 380 - and the superjumbo's European maker celebrated the world's biggest passenger jet's 100th commercial flight.

All that extensive testing and troubleshooting prior to the A380's commercial launch, as well as the real-time monitoring of all flights since, have paid off for SIA and Airbus.

It has been a good run for the double-decker giant since the Singapore-Sydney operations started on Oct 26, SIA's senior vice-president (engineering) Mervyn Sirisena told The Straits Times recently.

Other than a few weather-related delays out of Sydney, it's been 'on time, every time', he said, adding: 'It's been 100 per cent reliable. We have had a few surprises and very minor glitches here and there, but nothing serious or systemic.'

With just one A380 flying - SIA gets its second plane next month - operations and engineering teams here, in Sydney and in Toulouse, France, where Airbus is headquartered, are pulling out all the stops to make everything move like clockwork.

The A380 leaves Changi Airport every night at 8.30pm and arrives in Sydney at about 6am the next morning.

Within 100 minutes, the big jet must be off-loaded, cleaned, re-fuelled, loaded again and ready to return to home base at about 2.20pm.

Airbus' vice-president (customer services) for the A380, Mr Philippe Mhun, said: 'Early on, it became clear that SIA would not have a back-up aircraft during the initial operation.

'We were acutely aware that any 'no-go' item could result in the airline having to find hotel rooms for 471 passengers. So it was vital that the wheels were set in motion to deal with any incident as soon as it happened.'

SIA's Mr Sirisena said that, in a 'perverse' way, the almost two-year delivery delay due to production problems did them good, because it gave Airbus and SIA extra time to test and re-test their systems and technologies and work on contingency plans for the A380.

By the time the aircraft started carrying passengers, Airbus, working jointly with SIA and other partners, had a database on more than 5,000 technical and other issues that could go wrong and how they could be fixed.

Also, when it comes to spares and parts, more than 35 suppliers across the globe can be immediately activated if the need arises.

To support the early operations of the A380, Airbus, which already has a customer service centre here, sent a team of about 30 engineers and other specialists here to assist SIA.

Most have returned to Toulouse, but three team members will stay on until the end of the year at least, said Mr Gunter Emmerich, head of the Singapore Airbus team.

The support is 24/7, he said, adding that each time the A380 takes off, separate teams in Singapore, Sydney and Toulouse monitor the aircraft in real time.

Crediting the successful operations of the A380 to the close collaboration between SIA, Airbus and other partners, Mr Sirisena said: 'We were all a bit tense at first but we are more relaxed now.'

SIA will continue to monitor the A380 and its performance closely to ensure smooth operations continue, he said.

karam@sph.com.sg