The world's biggest jumbo jet was set to fly from Singapore on Thursday on its long-delayed first-ever commercial flight, as part of the Singapore Airlines daily service to Sydney.

The Airbus' A380 superjumbo will leave the city-state's Changi Airport at 8 a.m. (midnight Wednesday GMT), returning to Singapore the following day.

Passengers paid between $560 and $100,380 to be on the inaugural flight, after they had bid for the tickets as part of a charity auction to drum up publicity.

Airbus's new aircraft -- which boasts two passenger decks and, in the Singapore Airlines version, first-class suites with proper beds -- suffered two years of delays caused by wiring glitches, which pushed the planemaker into a loss and led to 10,000 lost jobs.

Singapore Airlines is to take delivery of another five A380s in 2008.