Forget about the huge suites of Etihad’s new Residences product or even the “luxury” of a 3-4-3 layout for economy class passengers on the Airbus A380. A 3-5-3 config is coming if aircraft lessor Amedeo (formerly Doric Lease Corporation) is to be believed. The company has published a seat map for what they expect the configuration to look like with 590 total seats on board; 456 of them will be for economy class passengers on the main deck. The 590 total seats is higher than Air France‘s 538 (the current “leader”) but lower than Emirates‘ 617 or Transaero’s 652 (including 616 in economy!) layouts, both of which will take flight starting in 2015.
Amadeo believes that Airbus will be able to deliver the new layout by 2016 when the company is scheduled to begin taking delivery of the 20 A380s it ordered. The leasing company has not yet announced any airlines for the deliveries though it has previously indicated it is looking to “unlock demand for the A380 and secure operators outside the existing customer base by concentrating on simpler, higher-density configurations.”
The 46 rows of economy class seats on the lower deck bests the 41 offered by Thai Airways on its A380 or the 45 Lufthansa has on its version of the aircraft. A glimmer of hope comes when comparing seat maps and discovering that Amedeo is planning on one fewer row in the forward-most section of the cabin. That hope is dashed when looking more closely and realizing that it is being replaced by a lavatory rather than extra legroom for passengers. It also means even more rows in the other sections so less pitch there.
The premium economy layout at the rear of the upper deck is showing as 2-4-2. That’s the same as the economy class offering from British Airways, Qantas and Air France on their upper decks while each of the three puts a premium economy cabin at 2-3-2 upstairs. Plus Amadeo appears to be putting 5 rows in the space at the far back where BA has 4. Galleys and lavs may adjust to offer additional pitch but an initial review of the seat map does not offer a lot of hope for passenger comfort here either.
For first class passengers there is some good news. The three rows of 1-2-1 seating is comparable to the generous space offered by Thai and fewer seats than Emirates places in the forward area of its upper deck. It is more seats than Lufthansa or Malaysia Airlines have on their aircraft in the same space.
This seating map offers up a whole lot of middle seats and not much hope in the way of increased pitch to counter the tighter squeeze passengers can be expected to feel. It is hard to get too excited about this news, at least in a positive manner.
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