Special report: 2008 Olympic Games     

    SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Singapore Airlines (SIA), the first in the world to operate the A380 super jumbo, began on Saturday its inaugural A380 flight to the Chinese capital city of Beijing to meet higher demand ahead of the Olympic Games, which will kick off next week.

    In a statement issued on Saturday, the airlines said that it commenced on Saturday a week of special A380 flights to Beijing, and flight SQ802, carrying 385 passengers and 25 crew, left the Changi Airport on Saturday morning and was scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Saturday afternoon.

    Among the passengers, 12 athletes and 18 officials were from the Singapore Olympic team, the airlines said, adding that over the next week, several hundred athletes from almost a dozen countries would fly by the A380 to Beijing to compete in the Olympic Games.

    The daily flights using the world's biggest passenger aircraft will last until Aug. 8.

    Currently, the airlines operates 66 weekly flights to four Chinese cities, including 21 weekly flights to Beijing, 35 such flights to Shanghai, seven flights to Guangzhou and three flights to Nanjing.