[Adrian B]

From the Brisbane Times

QANTAS'S A380 superjumbo has caused such a kerfuffle in Los Angeles that air traffic controllers have warned its arrival is creating tarmac gridlock at one of the world's busiest airports.

Even before Qantas's first A380 was grounded at Los Angeles on Tuesday for several hours due to a technical hitch, concerns had been raised the jet hampers operations there.

The Los Angeles Times reported the jet is so disruptive at the airport that service roads and taxiways are being shut when it arrives or departs. It reportedly requires an "official escort" of operational vehicles every time it taxis, and it disrupts the radio signals from the airport's instrument landing system.

Controllers say it is only because of the slump in air traffic since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that the airport can manage the A380.

"If we go back to pre-recession operations levels, the situation would be untenable. There would be gridlock," the airport representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Mike Foote, told the Times.

Airbus disputed the complaints. "If there is a problem at Los Angeles, and I don't know that there is, it seems that Los Angeles has a problem of their own making," an Airbus spokesman, Ted Porter, said.

A Qantas spokesman said the airline had been working with the airport for several months.