refuelling

the flight landed for a refuelling stop.

After refuelling at Bangkok, they flew on to Singapore.

But they are the size of light aircraft and need considerable supporting infrastructure, such as runways and refuelling facilities.

And refuelling it is a bit of a pain.

As a result, they will probably have to remain at least 1,000km away from shore, a distance that their warplanes cannot cross without refuelling.

Earlier plans by Airbus to make planes in America were thwarted when Boeing beat it to win a large order for mid-air refuelling tankers from the Pentagon.