Inside JFK, day one

Dozens of Lufthansa employees donned A380/Lufthansa polo shirts to identify ourselves to the press, Airbus crew, and several large groups of passengers who arrived on the A380's first visit to the US under flight number LH8940 this afternoon. We met these privileged people just outside customs in Terminal One, guiding them to their respective destinations: upstairs to the lounge for the press conference (media and Lufthansa crew of 35), to the charter bus headed straight for the hangar (Airbus crew), to the charter buses headed for the hotels (passengers).

Several reporters were present already, waiting to interview the passengers who experienced the luxury of the A380; by all accounts it is a comfortable cabin, roomy but not huge, which is so quiet you don't even feel like you are airborne. The Lufthansa crew members that I spoke with, including the purser, felt honored to be part of this moment in aviation history.