For the first time, the Calcutta airport accommodated a Beluga XL, Airbus's biggest transport aircraft. Beluga XL is an upgraded and bigger version of Beluga ST. Earlier, the airport had accommodated ST series aircraft of Airbus. This was the first time an XL series aircraft landed in the airport.

The Beluga XL is 63.1m long, with a wingspan of 60.3m. Its cargo hold is large enough to transport two wings of an Airbus A350 aircraft. The Beluga XL (Airbus A330-743L) has been designed to carry oversized cargo, primarily aircraft components such as wings and fuselages.

The aircraft arrived from Bahrain on Tuesday at 10.43pm, said airport officials. The Beluga XL started its journey from the Airbus factory in Toulouse in France and is transporting items to a unit of the company in China's Tianjin, officials said. After landing, the aircraft was allowed to be parked in one of the taxiways. “Had it been taken to a parking bay, a pushback vehicle would have been needed to push the aircraft in and out of the parking area,” said an airport official. Planes are not designed with reverse options, so pushback vehicles or tugs are used to move aircraft backwards.

“The city airport does not have a big enough pushback tug to handle such a big aircraft. Hence, it was parked in a taxiway so that the aircraft could move in and out on its own," the official said. The aircraft landed in Calcutta for rest because of flight duty time limitations of crew members and for refuelling. "The city airport is the only suitable airport in eastern India that can accommodate this type of aircraft," the official said.

The Beluga aircraft departed at 5.19pm on Wednesday for Tianjin Binhai International Airport in China, the official said.