French Airline signs deal for 840 passenger A380 superjumbo

Airlines placing an order for new planes is normally not really newsworthy, but a memorandum of understanding signed yesterday between French airline Air Austral and Airbus for 2 A380’s is something special.

Air Austral will be the first airline to order the A380 with seating designed to its fullest capacity.

That means a whopping 840 passengers spread out between the double decks of this superjumbo. It also means the end of the dream that the A380 would only offer the finest in passenger comfort with onboard bars and casinos.

Air Austral plans to operate the 2 A380’s on their Paris-Réunion route, which they describe as “high density”.

Of course, flying a plane this big into Roland Garros airport will probably require some tweaks to the facilities, or things may become a little clogged when all 840 passengers plus crew try to make their way land side.

Air Austral actually operates a pretty impressive route network, and has scheduled flights from Réunion to Sydney, Bankok and Madagascar, to name just a few.

(Via: Airbus press release)