The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial airliner, will fly to China next week for route proving in order to get its final certification, the European aircraft maker said yesterday.

The 555-seat double-decker will arrive in Guangzhou next Wednesday. The southern city is the headquarters of China Southern Airlines, which is currently the A380's only Chinese customer.

The aircraft will then fly to Beijing the next morning and to Shanghai that evening, before returning next Friday to Toulouse, France.

The exercise is the last trial required for the A380 to complete its certification in mid-December.

Each new type of aircraft must get certification from regulatory authorities before entering commercial service.

The certification requires an aircraft to notch up 300 flight hours.

The A380 has so far completed half of the process. For the remaining 150 flight hours, it will fly on a typical airline schedule to 10 different airports, including Singapore, Seoul, Hong Kong, Narita, Johannesburg, Sydney and Vancouver.

Four of the 10 airports are in China, showing the firm's commitment to the booming Chinese aviation market.

"China is a critical market for us. We decided to fly to China partly because China Southern is the A380 customer here," said Thomas Burger, Airbus' product marketing manager for the A380.

"It is also because eight of our current A380 customers intend to fly A380s to China in the near future. By 2011, there will be more than 100 weekly services to China using the A380," Burger said.

It is also "logical" for the A380 to fly to China as Airbus forecasts that China will need 200 large aircraft like the A380 over the next two decades, Burger added.

The aircraft used for the trial will only be a test plane without a commercial cabin interior and will not carry passengers, Airbus said.

The aircraft is installed with equipment such as temperature sensors and heat-generating passenger dummies that can be used to replicate typical onboard conditions.

Tests will cover checks on standard aircraft maintenance and behaviour, bridge docking, cleaning and catering, as well as refuelling and boarding procedures.

The first A380 will be delivered to Singapore Airlines in October 2007, almost a year behind schedule. Sources said the airline would first use the superjumbo to fly routes to Sydney and London.

Airbus attributed the delivery delay to problems with installing onboard wiring systems.