Air Austral buying 2 all-economy-class Airbus A380 Superjumbo planes to carry 840 passengers in each

Air Austral, based in Reunion, France, has announced that it plans to buy 2 Airbus A380 planes, nicknamed Superjumbo, configured with all-economy-class to carry as many as 840 passengers in each.

Photo: Airbus A380

This will be the largest number of people to be carried in a single plane so far. That also answers the question of many aviation enthusiasts about the maximum seating capacity of an Airbus A380. If an Airbus A380 is fully economy class, 840 seats seem to be pretty much the limit, though we are sure Airbus and Airlines can always work together and find some extra space for more seats if needed.

Air Austral – which connects islands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean with France – is planning to operate the Paris-Reunion flight, using the Airbus A380, from 2014.

Reunion, an island in the western Indian Ocean south-west of Mauritius, is an overseas territory of France. Reunion uses the euro as legal tender.

The other destinations of Air Austral include the islands of New-Caledonia and Mayotte as well as cities in Australia and South Africa.

Gerard Etheve, president of Air Austral, said in a statement that the company is convinced that “airplanes with good-priced tickets will help achieve large traffic figures.”

Air Austral, which Gerard Etheve founded in 1975, said it has paid less than the $660-million (£393 million) list price for the 2 Airbus A380 planes.

Thus, Air Austral will become the first carrier to buy the Airbus A380 – the biggest passenger airliner in the world – with an all-economy configuration.

Airlines usually order the Superjumbo in a multi-class configuration with a total of about 525 seats.

At present, 20 Airbus A380 jets are in service with 4 airlines, flying on 13 international routes.

A total of 202 Superjumbos have so far been ordered by 17 airlines.

Most airlines have chosen to have fewer seats in order to make room for premium-class passengers.

Austral Air currently has a fleet of 10 aircraft, including 3 ATR-72 planes and 2 Boeing 737 aircraft – all of them in all-economy layout – plus 5 Boeing 777 planes with 3-class seating.

Austral Air operates scheduled and non-scheduled services from Reunion, and its main base is Roland Garros Airport in Sainte-Marie, Reunion, France.

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, 4-engine airliner made by the Airbus Industrie, headquartered in Toulouse, France, and a subsidiary of the European aerospace corporation Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

The Superjumbo can sit 525 people in the standard 3-class layout used on most long-distance flights, or up to 853 passengers in the all-economy configuration.

The Airbus A380 Superjumbo, the world’s largest passenger airliner, made its maiden flight on April 27, 2005, from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on October 25, 2007, from Singapore to Sydney, with Singapore Airlines.

According to Airbus Industrie, the Airbus A380 is certified to carry a maximum of 873 passengers, including 20 crew members. The standard 3-class layout of 525 sets   compares with over 550 seats on some flights on the Boeing 747 Jumbo – which was previously the biggest passenger airline in the world.

The maximum passenger load of the Airbus A380 jet is equivalent to a mid-sized cruise ship, or equivalent to about 10 double-decker London buses.