Before the first fully assembled A380 even reached the runway it spent over three months going through a battery of ground tests on hydraulics, electrical circuits, landing gear systems, flight controls, fuel systems and navigational systems. It was also subjected to intense pressure tests, vibration tests, flight simulation tests and load bearing tests.

Since the A380 first took to the skies on 27 April 2005, Airbus has been running the aircraft through a rigorous test flight campaign. In all, five aircraft will spend a total of 2,500 flight hours, or 312 working days, being tested in the air.

In addition to the ground tests and flight campaigns, a separate A380 airframe, the aircraft structure, is undergoing the most extensive fatigue tests ever carried out on a complete airframe. Conducted in Dresden (Germany) over 26 months, the tests will provide information on pressurisation and depressurisation. This round the clock programme represents the equivalent of 47,500 flights.

The A380's developmental progress and testing success were manifested in the completion of the A380's first long haul test flight from Toulouse (France) to Singapore. Singapore, the first city scheduled to operate A380 commercial flights, was also the first city outside Europe to welcome the new test flight aircraft on 11 November 2005. The A380 arrived in Singapore Airlines and Airbus livery in honour of its launch customer Singapore Airlines. Moving on, the test flight programme has taken the A380 to other cities, providing engineers with the opportunity to test the aircraft in long haul conditions and in various airports.

This December, the world's largest cabin trainer was installed at the Airbus training centre in Toulouse. The state-of-the-art trainer features a double-deck replica of the actual aircraft, designed for cabin and flight crew safety training in both normal and emergency flight situations.