MANILA, Philippines - The world's largest passenger aircraft landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Tuesday night and was welcomed by President Benigno Aquino III.
Footage from Radio and TV Malacañang (RTVM) showed Aquino inside the NAIA Terminal 3 as the Emirates Airbus A380 arrived from Dubai past 10 p.m.
The President later talked to officials of Emirates Airline.
In an earlier post on its official Facebook page, Emirates said it took its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft to Manila to celebrate the airline's move to the international terminal.
Based on the RTVM footage, the Airbus A380 was given a water cannon salute while Aquino met the plane's Filipino pilot, Capt. Franklyn Desiderio,
video courtesy of RTVM's Youtube account
According to television reports, Aquino also welcomed the passengers of world's largest plane and observed the operations of the Terminal 3.
The A380 landed at the NAIA after the country's main gateway was named by US website The Cheat Sheet as among the world's worst airport.
“This Manila-based airport struggles with the 32 million passengers who use its facility each year. That shouldn’t come as a shock, though, considering it only has the capacity for six million passengers, according to CNBC,” it said.