Airbus presenta su superavión

The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, sometimes called the super-jumbo, has been unveiled at an elaborate ceremony in France.

This report from Andrew Walker:

The Airbus company says the new aircraft will offer about a third more seating than its nearest competitor. Air travel is a growing business and the company says the A380 will enable more passengers to travel without extra air traffic movements. If the new aircraft is a success it would break the dominance that Boeing has in very large aircraft with its 747 jumbo jet.

Airbus is now a company in its own right, but it grew out of the cooperation between aerospace companies in several European countries, encouraged by their governments. The first airbus went into service in the mid-1970s. The presence at the unveiling of political leaders from France, Britain, Germany and Spain underlines the fact that it is a still a powerful symbol of European industrial cooperation.

Boeing has long complained that Airbus was supported by government subsidy, as it clearly has been. But Airbus has countered that Boeing too gets financial support from the US government. The competitive relationship between the two has been punctuated by rows about this issue.

Boeing has taken a different view of the way forward in this market. Instead of developing a very large aircraft, it is working on a smaller long distance plane, called the 7e7 Dreamliner. The Boeing vision for a growing aviation business seems to be one of a large number of direct, or 'point to point' flights. The A380 is about putting more passengers on each plane.

Andrew Walker, BBC, London

Listen to the words

enable
permitirá, hará posible

break the dominance
romperá el dominio

went into service
comenzó a volar

unveiling
demostración

presence
presencia

underlines
pone de manifiesto

government subsidy
subsidio del gobierno

punctuated
marcada

the way forward
como progresar

vision
vision