Chew Choon Seng, chief executive of Singapore Airlines, took delivery on Monday of the first Airbus A380 superjumbo, the world’s biggest commercial passenger jet, and provocatively consigned the rival Boeing 747 to history.

“The 747, that regrettably is a has-been,” he said. “From today there is a new queen of the skies for air travel ... The 747 is a good plane but it is not an all-new design. This is the plane for today and tomorrow.”