Imagine a plane with 557 of these! It’s coming next month. (Chris McGinnis)
Airlines that fly Airbus’ giant double-decker A380 generally install between 400 and 500 seats on the plane in a three-class configuration. But now Emirates has unveiled a 617-passenger version, which will make it the world’s largest commercial aircraft in terms of passenger capacity.
Emirates made the big reveal at the Dubai Airshow this week. It will put the new version of the A380 into service December 1 on the Dubai-Copenhagen route.
How did Emirates manage to fit so many seats on the plane? Easy: It eliminated the spacious first class section, instead fitting the aircraft with just two classes: 58 flatbed seats in business class and 557 in economy. (The airline notes that even on this version, its A380s will still offer their trademark OnBoard Lounge.)
Related: How Emirates welcomes a new A380
First and business class lounge at the rear of the upper deck (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Actually, 617 seats on an A380 isn’t all that much when you consider the aircraft’s technical specifications. The A380-800 is certified to carry as many as 853 passengers in an all-economy configuration (ouch!).
Emirates is a big believer in the A380 — it’s already the industry’s biggest A380 operator, with 68 of them in its fleet and firm orders for another 72.
The carrier’s new two-class A380 will have 101 more seats than what was previously the largest — Air France’s 516-seat version (which used to be 538 seats before the carrier installed premium economy seating). Here’s Wikipedia’s listing of airlines with A380s and their configurations.
As for the A380 with the least passenger capacity, Seatguru.com notes that Singapore Airlines has a version of the A380 outfitted with its new premium economy section that has as few as 379 total seats. Otherwise, Korean Air’s A380s have the fewest seats– 407 total. (Here’s Chris’s Trip Report from last fall about flying Korean’s A380 from Seoul to Atlanta.)
Have you flown on at A380 yet? What did you think?
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Brux says
November 30, 2015 at 6:42 pmGod forbid anything happens to one of these planes, but that is too many people on one plane in case of an accident.
Kirk says
November 22, 2015 at 6:16 pmUmm, no! The A380 has WAY more than 3 doors. What matters is the number of jetbridges that get connected. Most airports only have 2 jetbridges for an A380.
DrewT says
November 20, 2015 at 5:20 pmWithin the US, you have to have a FA for every 50 seats that the aircraft has… One of the FAs on an American 737-800 flying into RDU told me that one day… There’s a version of the AA 737-800 (Seatguru ID’s it as 737-800 V2) that has some seats blocked out in the rows right behind the exits… The FA told me that those are hard-blocked (and she was right — they didn’t even have seat cushions in them — they had hard consoles in them) to keep the number of seats at 150, so they only had to have 3 FAs on board.
Brad says
November 20, 2015 at 9:39 amI’ve flown on an A380 four times and each time I have managed to de-plane faster than on any domestic flight. There are three doors, which really speeds the process along. There’s nothing you can do about immigration; try visiting Heathrow at any time of day—you’ll be in line for an hour.
TrixieSF says
November 19, 2015 at 5:42 pmBut what gate is large enough to handle this many passengers?! I was flying out of SFO on an A380 to FRA while another was boarding to SIN (I think)… lemme say, it’s a good thing the Fire Marshall wasn’t around, cause there is no way that having that many people crammed in a tight space like that is a good idea.
BlueLion says
November 19, 2015 at 9:43 amActually the number of flight attendants is based on the number of seats the plane carries.
Dan Leifker says
November 19, 2015 at 8:05 amCopenhagen to Dubai? What an odd pair of cities for a seat-stuffed A380. I wonder if Airbus and the Copenhagen airport aren’t heavily discounting prices to Emirates to make this a profitable route. I have read that Airbus hasn’t received a new order for an A380 in a long time.
These “flying warehouse” plane configurations have a huge drawback that is often unmentioned. If you’re seated far from an airplane exit when the plane lands, you exit the plane with 500 or 600 passengers ahead of you, and your wait to get through immigration or passport control at some airports (Miami, Newark, San Francisco) will be nightmarish.
But I do like planes with four engines, they make me feel safer.
Chris McGinnis says
November 19, 2015 at 6:20 amYes, I believe that there is a required ratio of flight attendants per passenger for safety reasons.
snorkleboy13 says
November 19, 2015 at 5:58 amChris – Do they increase the number of flight attendants based on the number of passengers?