The inaugural Europe flight of an Airbus 380, the world's biggest passenger jet, on Tuesday, June 2, was overshadowed by the tragedy of Air France Flight 447.

June 02, 2009, (Sawf News) - The inaugural Europe flight of an Airbus 380, the world's biggest passenger jet, on Tuesday, June 2, was overshadowed by the tragedy of Air France Flight 447.

The Singapore Airlines super jumbo jet arrived at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Singapore on its maiden commercial flight.

Though capable of carrying 853 passengers, Singapore Airlines has configured it with only 471 seats, in three classes: 12 suites with armchairs one meter (39 inches) wide that can be made to recline full length, 60 seats in business class and 399 in economy class.

The return flight, filled to near capacity, carried 35 members of the French national rugby team, headed for a tour of the Pacific region, in its business class.

A celebration was planned to mark the event but instead a spokesman for Singapore Airlines asked for a minute of silence for the 228 passengers and crew missing aboard an Air France Airbus A330

“It is a great honor to inaugurate this aircraft,” the team's general manager Jo Maso told AFP.

He added that he was "not worried at all" after the accident on Monday, and that "air travel is one of the safest ways of travelling."

Singapore Airlines already runs A380 flights from Singapore to Sydney, London and Tokyo.

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