Apparently, Airbus is to go ahead and build a Super-Jumbo passenger aircraft, designed to carry 480-656 passengers. there’s a link here. I seem to remember from a couple of years ago that the expected trend in civil aviation was not towards the use of bigger aircraft, but actually an increasing use of smaller aircraft. Did something change?
I hate the fact that any company is thinking of building a bigger plane than the 747. Have you ever tried to clear customs when 1 747 and 2 767’s land? Unless all major airports expand their passenger handling capacity, flying will be even more of a nightmare than it already is. At the DFW airport I had to wait 1 hour for my bags, on a domestic flight, and the airplane was only about 300 feet, in a direct line, from the baggage carousel. Larger airplanes will suck mightily.
The trend to smaller planes is usually for domestic flights. Bigger planes are desired on long (transoceanic) flights. The small planes allow flexibility in scheduling so an airline can have, say, 1 flight an hour from Chicago to New York which is convenient for passengers.
With the Asia markets growing like mad projections are for increaseing air travel. BIG planes make a lot more sense since they get an economy of scale flying one HUGE plane as opposed to 2 or 3 merely big planes.
FYI: Japan is so crowded that even some of their commuter flights (akin to a flight from New York to Washington, D.C.) use 747’s. The planes are modified so the entire thing, front to back and the second deck behind the pilots, are basic coach seating. Talk about a crammed plane!
More passengers and bigger planes are the only thing that annoy you about this? The truly scary thing here is Airbus is planning on building in things like shops and–urk!–a gym. Yeah, I want a seat next to the guy who just got back from the gym, but didn’t want to take a shower…