An online auction for seats on the first commercial flight of the super jumbo Airbus A380, between Singapore and Sydney, began Monday night, the eBay online marketplace said. "A380 First Flight Charity Auction has begun," said eBay's Singapore website after the scheduled 8:00 pm (1200 GMT) start of bidding.
Seats are being offered for sale on eBay with the proceeds going to charity, SIA said in an earlier statement. The airline is set to be the first to fly the double-decker A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, on October 25 with a flight to Sydney. The aircraft will return to Singapore the following day.
Initial bids were taken on two business class seats, with the price listed at 2,950 US dollars when bidding for the session ended less than one hour after it started, eBay said.
"A majority of seats on both legs of the first flight will be auctioned on eBay... progressively over two weeks from Monday evening (Singapore time), 27 August," SIA said earlier. Starting bids for economy class seats will be 3.80 US dollars, business class 38 dollars and the Singapore Airlines Suites 380 dollars.
Bids on packages in the premium classes, or bids of more than 1,000 dollars in economy class will require pre-qualification to ensure that the offers are not artificially inflated, the airline said. Proceeds will be divided equally between a Singapore charity, two childrens' hospitals in Sydney and the international relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Prospective bidders can pre-register for details at www.singaporeair.com/a380. SIA has committed to buy 19 A380s despite a series of delays that pushed back delivery from early last year.
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