At what speed does an Airbus A380 land?

The A380 approaches the runway at between 135 and 145 knots (250-270 km/h) on most arrivals, a speed comparable to an A320 or a 737 despite weighing several times more. The explanation lies in the wing: with 845 m² of area and a 79.8 m span, the largest of any airliner, it generates enough lift at low speed, and the large-chord flaps, in the FULL setting, lower the stall speed even further. Airbus designed the wing with margin for a future stretched A380 that was never built, so on the A380-800 it ends up relatively oversized.

For each landing, the crew gets the approach speed (Vapp) from the selectable minimum speed Vls, which depends on the actual weight, plus an increment for wind. Near the maximum landing weight of 394 t, the A380's Vapp is around 140 kn; at the end of a fourteen-hour flight from Dubai or Sydney, with little fuel remaining, it can drop to 125-130 kn. The aircraft's flight computers calculate these figures automatically and display them on the primary flight display.

After touchdown, the A380 deploys spoilers, brakes using 16 of the 20 wheels on its main landing gear via carbon brakes, and uses reverse thrust only on the two inboard engines to avoid kicking up debris from the runway edge. With all that, it stops its nearly 400 t in about 2,000 m. Its wake turbulence is the most intense in commercial aviation: controllers require greater separation for aircraft landing behind it, which led ICAO to create a category of its own for it, "Super".