Will "superjumbo" be accepted at US airports?

Airports across the United States are reportedly saying that major construction will be necessary to accommodate the new Airbus A380 “superjumbo” – and that there will not be enough demand to justify such major work. According to the Miami Herald, airports have stated that they might even have to reduce airport traffic to make way for the new jets – and that the sheer weight of the planes could damage airport tunnels and underpasses. The Miami Herald’s website quotes one aviation analyst, Alan Boyd, as saying: “Let’s do a cost/benefit analysis: are you really going to spend millions of dollars when you might have two a day of them fly in.” And Mark Reis, managing director of Seattle’s SeaTac airport, reportedly said: “The airport just does not lend itself to the operation of an aircraft of that size on a regular basis,” adding that no airline has expressed a wish to fly the A380 into Seattle. While Los Angeles International, San Francisco, JFK and Chicago O’Hare have all announced plans to make necessary improvements, officials at Las Vegas are reported as saying that “it is not even clear that the airport’s underground tunnels could handle the weight of the plane”. A spokesman for Airbus says “plenty” of airports will be willing to accept the new plane, adding: “I’m confident that we will be able to show that the amount of disruption is rather limited.” Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd.