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28 March 2024

Video: Emirates to fly largest passenger aircraft - 615 seats

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By Staff

On December 1, Emirates airline will fly past Air France to fly the world’s largest aircraft in terms of passenger capacity.

This feather in the airline’s cap comes after the Dubai-based carrier retrofitted its A380 by excluding First Class and focusing only on Business and Economy Classes hence allowing the carrier to add 18 per cent more seating capacity to the jumbo jet.

The world’s largest aircraft will be equipped with 615 passenger seats, 18 per cent more seats than its most dense A380 configuration (519 seats). Emirates’ new 615 seat configuration is also 14 per cent more dense than the largest A380 configuration in active service, that from Air France (538 seats). However, this version from Air France is being retrofitted to include premium economy, which will reduce the seat count to 516.

Emirates’ two-class configured A380 will feature 58 flatbed seats in Business Class and 557 seats in Economy Class, as well as its Onboard Lounge. The newest version of Emirates’ A380 will feature among the widest individual in-seat Economy Class screens in the industry, measuring in at 13.3 inches, the airline claimed.

The aircraft, put on display at the Dubai Airshow, is Emirates’ 68th A380 in its fleet and was delivered directly from Airbus in Hamburg Finkenwerder to the show site.



According to aviation think-tank Capac, the next largest configuration is from Lufthansa at 526 seats. This version is also being retrofitted to include premium economy, which will reduce seat count. Once the retrofits are complete, Emirates will have the two largest configurations (seating 615 and 519). Emirates and Qatar will both operate A380 with 517 seats, the third most dense configuration.

The fourth most dense version will be from Air France (516 seats) followed by Lufthansa (509), Thai Airways (507) and China Southern (506), Capa said, adding that all other operators/versions will have under 500 seats, mostly above 469 seats. The exceptions are Singapore Airlines with a 409 seat version (second least dense) and Korean Air with 407 seats, the least dense.

Initial markets for the 615-passenger aircraft are, so far announced, to Bangkok, Copenhagen and Kuala Lumpur.