Airbus A380 airliner to fly from Birmingham Airport

The world's biggest passenger airline has flown into Birmingham Airport ahead of a new daily flights schedule from the West Midlands.

The Airbus A380 will operate on a route run by Middle Eastern airline Emirates between the Birmingham and Dubai from Easter Sunday.

The aircraft can fly 15,200km (9,995 miles) and carry 600 passengers.

Bosses hope its arrival can help the airport to keep expanding and serve more passengers.

Bob Graham, airport operations director, said £1m had been spent on the infrastructure needed to host the plane.

He said the new service was "a fantastic opportunity" to bring in more passengers to the airport - which handled 10 million passengers in 2015 - as well as more jobs for the region.

"It's the most prestigious aircraft that's currently around," he said.

Image captionBob Graham, from Birmingham Airport, said £1m had been spent on the infrastructure needed to host the plane

Craig Burrows, from Emirates, said: "The challenge is trying to turn the aircraft around safely and securely.

"We need extra ground service equipment which we have to ensure gets on the aircraft safely and there's more fuel up-lift and a lot more baggage to be carried on the aircraft due to the bigger number of passengers."

The Airbus A380

• The plane is nearly 240ft (72.72m) long and 260ft (79.25m) wide
• It weighs 566 tonnes, with the paint alone weighing more than half a tonne
• The plane has a flying range of 15,200km (9,995 miles)
• It was first introduced into airline services in 2007, and carries more than 540 passengers across two decks
• The A380 first flew to Birmingham in 2009 to mark the airport's 70th anniversary

Image captionThe plane will start operating on Easter Sunday