Greg Sykes The Airbus A380 this month made test flights to U.S. airports, which have spent millions to accommodate the double-decker plane with a 262-ft wingspan.

A few American airports got a preview of the future last week, as a pair of the world’s largest passenger plane made route-proving flights to test the facilities upgraded for them. Although regular service is still two years away, the 239.5-ft-long, 79-ft-tall plane with a wingspan of almost 262 ft is a tangible symbol of how airports must design for new generations of aircraft.

On March 19, two Airbus A380s landed almost simultaneously at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport  and Los Angeles International Airport. “This is the wave of the future,” said Al Grazer, general manager of aviation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at a press briefing. He added later that the agency is spending about $180 million to prepare runways and taxiways for the A380. Runways, typically about 150 ft wide, must be widened to 200 ft for the plane, which can carry 555 people.

The airline Lufthansa, which has 15 A380s on order, also plans demo flights to Chicago and Washington D.C. It is one of four airlines that privately financed and built JFK’s Terminal One, where the double-decker A380s will park. Related upgrades include work at four of the 11 gates, dual jetbridges and baggage handling. They cost about $40 million.

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The other A380, operated by Qantas Airways, landed at LAX after some wrangling by officials. Airbus had promised LAX that it would bring the demo plane there if the airport spent $9 million on capacity upgrades at Tom Bradley International Terminal. But it then announced plans to land in New York instead. In February, LAX and Qantas demanded that the French company reconsider.

Clark Construction Group, Bethesda, Md., and St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. completed the $9-million Airbus A380-capable gate last summer. Designed by Leo A. Daly, Omaha, the 3,000-sq-ft project added a new double deck terminal ramp allowing for simultaneous boarding and deplaning, says Gordon Phillips, a Daly principal. The work entailed new fueling and ticketing areas, plus pavement striping.

“The A380 is tight on limit lines, and had to fit at 45 degrees,” Phillips says. “Clearances are a problem with the runway widths and turning radius. It requires smoother, wider curves. At the gate, it’s the wing span and length of the aircraft that’s the problem since it’s nine feet longer than the largest 747.”

Airbus officials claim the difficulties in building the plane that caused a two-year delay are behind them. William Fife, aviation vice president in DMJM+Harris’s New York City office, says that only half a dozen U.S. airports anticipate handling Airbus A380 flights in the near future. However, “this is the 747 of the 21st century,” he says. “If you look at any airport and see twenty 737s, they are candidates—as 737s go out of service—for two or three A380s.”