Superjumbo aircraft set to get bigger

Korean Air took delivery of its first Airbus A380 'superjumbo' this week, joining an exclusive club that includes Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, Qantas and Singapore, although reports suggest that the world's largest airplane could be about to get bigger.

Korean Air's model is fitted with 407 seats in three classes, along with some other unique innovations, such as a walk-in duty free store aimed at trumping other onboard services offered by rivals.

Emirates has fitted a shower to its A380, for instance, while Air France has a small art gallery and Singapore first-class suites with doors.

But while the world's carriers are clearly aiming at luxury-loving travelers, some people are still just looking for a cheap flight, and that's pushing carriers to think about how to maximize space on board their A380s.

Airlines including Emirates, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific are already known to have expressed interest in a new stretched variant of the double-decker aircraft, dubbed the A380-900, which would be capable of seating approximately 900 passengers in an all-economy layout.

To put that in perspective, the Boeing 747 'jumbo jet' can carry 624 passengers in an all-economy configuration.

According to reports in the Australian media, however, an even longer design could be in the works, capable of carrying 1,000 passengers, with Lufthansa and Air France reported to be among those interested in the plane.

At the moment, there's been nothing official -- but as global travel continues to boom, it seems that the superjumbo could be about to get a little more super.

Read the report: http://www.ausbt.com.au/airlines-supersize-the-airbus-a380-superjumbo-from-407-seats-to-1-000-seats