You heard of "air force 1" for the Prime Minister..Tony Blair (sorry - Gordon Brown).

When will they have their eyes on the A380 palace?

"more space, more comfort and a more modern design that flies non-stop to the world"

To the world..... from where?

...of any way that a single person could pollute the atmosphere more through pure selfish greed? I hope he dies from deep vein thrombosis.

I'm sure the prince sees it more like small change.

Let's hope this essential an unavoidable expense doesn't compromise his his ability to pay his monthly direct debit to Oxfam.

No, I'm afraid the UK could not justify it.

It'd have to be for the new European President and, after all, the A380 is a perfect example of European cooperation (late, over budget and extravagant). That said, Airbus make much better planes than Boeing and Rolls Royce engines beat Pratt and Whitney hands down.

That's got to be a hefty christmas bonus for one Airbus salesman - Jeez.

what all this fuss about the middle east is all about really. they're obviously a civilised bunch.

You just wait and see what his father the king ordered!

Seconded, but there are more painful ways to die. Let's hope for one of those.

And to anybody who says "It is his money... blah, blah", yes I bet it was all legitimately obtained. Of course, no doubt.

I'm wondering how many of his beauties he would try to fit into the flying harem... its sure gonna be a bumpy ride from him....

.. might as well offer tokyo to paris

Fiddling whilst Rome burnt is practically inconsequential compared with the unstoppable profligacy of the Saudi Royal Family (about 5,000 of them by the time you tot up all the hangers on).

It will not be too much longer before the plane is needed - not for another drugs, whores & booze cruise to Monaco (look ma! a 3-way Wahhabi!), but to get out of that blighted country when the general populous finally realise they're being driven into a new stone age by their so called 'leaders' and choose to do something about it.

The Saudi Royal Family are disgusting. Truly.

"...of any way that a single person could pollute the atmosphere more through pure selfish greed? I hope he dies from deep vein thrombosis."

Should the same not be said about the 'owner' of Air Force 1?...

"The Saudi Royal Family are disgusting. Truly."

Come on Chris... If the Royal Family were that bad, and corrupt, I'm sure probes into their dealings with BAE Systems would have revealed it...

last time I checked... Air Force 1 is the call sign for any US Air Force aircraft that the president is currently on. so would your comment be about the US Air Force because they own the call sign? or would it be about the president... and for that matter, which president. once this president is out of office, he has no claim to the "air force 1" call sign as he will not be the presiding president. And if your comment is about the Boeing plane that is usually represented as air force 1, that's owned by the US Air Force.

and if your comment is about the president, I understand why you would wish to remain anonymous as death threats to the president are not usually smiled upon.

next time, try to actually know what you're talking about, or at least convey it better so that you don't look like a foolish coward... oh wait... anonymous coward... sorry.

/coat

As an Aerospace Engineer i can tell you flat out that Airbus do not build BETTER aircraft then Boeing. They build aircraft that are sold at a cheaper price then Boeing. However, over the course of an aircraft life the Airbus will ALWAYS end up costing more then the Boeing. So total cost of ownership for an Airbus aircraft is much higher then a Boeing even if initial cost is lower.

Additionally Boeing have an excellent customer service department which will come up with repairs in very quick fashion. Ask Airbus for a solution and you may as well wait till the next millennium for the answer! And there even worse to work with when designing aircraft (they change the specs every week even after production has already begun!).

Lastly as a passenger i will always take a 747 or 777 over an A340!! The comfort is that much better (although this is more to do with the airlines that owns the aircraft then the aircraft itself)...

I'm glad there's competition in the market place and all but dont for a minute think that Airbus is better at this stage of the game!

(PS im an Australian...)

That should be Air Farce 1 if its for the UK.

I must have missed the bit where there was a direct death threat to the US PResident, i can only really someone having a dig at the pollution caused by Air Force 1.... maybe you should stay off the coffee a little.

Well, at least, the prince's A380 will most probably not have the no "rumpy-bumpy" sign, which Singapore Airlines have slapped on their A380 first class cabins!

Oops. That kind of talk can get you in trouble:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,2211561,00.html

no-wonder the petrol price has gone up so much recently.

I feel I should revoke my earlier comments. They're not really a civilised bunch...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7096814.stm