A380

The European giant Airbus recently revealed its latest addition to its airplane catalogue, a double-decker super-jumbo. Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson has ordered 6 of them with an option of 6 more. The current plan in Richard’s mind is going for a luxury; incorporate a bar, a casino, a beauty parlor and even 35 double beds in each of them, which has 555 seats remaining, rather than 840 seats. Are all these facilities available to economy flyers, like me?

The answer from Boeing is 7E7, called dreamliner, which will be more fuel-efficient and carrying from 217 to 300 passengers. It isn’t a direct competitor to A380 despite of common conception. The release date is about 2007 and running commercially on 2008. Airbus A350, on the other hand, has a total of 245 seats with a cruising range of 15900km. The plane will not be flying until 2010.

I always prefer, if possible, a smaller plane instead of a larger, simply because sitting with another 500 people is too overwhelming. I have difficulty of breathing up there.