COLLECTOR's SHEET France 0,60€ Marianne AIRBUS A380 HONG KONG-TOKYO 2006 (110€)

Toulouse, November 12, 2006: The final phase of the A380 certification process, “Route Proving”, has begun.

The device designated for these tests is serial number 2 (MSN-002). This is a program of 150 hours of flights divided into 4 “Missions” campaigns departing from Toulouse, in real commercial operating conditions, the passengers being made up of Airbus personnel. A WORLD TOUR with stopovers is included in the test. In just over two weeks, the aircraft will land in 10 international airports.

- Mission 01: the first flight will take it to Singapore and Seoul (South Korea).

- Mission 02: the second in Hong Kong (China) and Tokyo (Japan).

- Mission 03: the third in Canton, Beijing and Shanghai (China).

- Mission 04: the fourth flight will be a real WORLD TOUR, the Airbus A380 must take off on November 26 from Toulouse to reach Johannesburg (South Africa), Sydney (Australia) via the South Pole, Vancouver (Canada) in turn via the Pacific Ocean before returning to Toulouse via the North Pole.

During all these stopovers, the aircraft will be subject to the practices in force at airports for disembarkation/embarkation and logistics. The entire campaign will be supervised by the competent certification authorities, the American FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and the European EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency).