Airbus has announced a provisional deal for Russian airline Transaero to buy its Airbus A380 aircraft.  The order is for 4 airplanes at a list value of about $1.5 Billion.

What’s impressive is Transaero’s plans to have these aircraft seat 700 people.  The Boeing 747-400 Domestic is capable of seating about 550 people in a high density layout.  The Transaero aircraft will be the rough equivalent of adding another 737 to a 747. 

Air Austral, another purchaser of the Airbus A380 has announced plans to fly its aircraft with seating for over 850 people.  That would be the equivalent of adding a 777-200 to a 747-400. 

Will it work for these airlines?  Time will only tell but it’s hard to find that many people who want to be crammed into that kind of airliner for a long haul flight at any price.  Current A380 operators are making money with their aircraft but only on extremely high density, high profit long haul routes. 

There are only so many routes in the world and, more importantly, there are only so many airports that can accomodate the A380.  In Russia, the only one is Domodedevo.

As much as I do not want to fly on such an aircraft, I have to admit that I would like to see what 800 seats on one aircraft looks like.

Filed under: Airline Fleets by ajax