AIRCRAFT with seating for more than 800 passengers are the future of an aviation market facing massive growth and capacity constraints at major airports.

A global market forecast conducted by aircraft manufacturer Airbus in Sydney, outlined the challenges created by rapidly growing demand particularly from markets such as China and India.

Director of Strategic Marketing and Analysis Andrew Gordon said by 2033 every Australian would be flying an average 4.2 times a year, and the 1.4 billion Chinese an average 0.95 times.

Within Australia, the top five airports of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, could expect passengers to double by 2033 to 180 million, from 90 million last year.

Mr Gordon said with airports such as London’s Heathrow already operating at maximum capacity, the only way to handle such growth was for airlines to use larger aircraft.

“The trend is definitely moving to larger airplanes,” said Mr Gordon.

“We are always looking at possibilities for all of our aircraft and if the market demands (an even bigger plane), we will build it.”

Airbus’s A380 already offers a one class configuration capable of seating 853-passengers but no airline is yet operating with such a format.

However Emirates recently announced it would move to a two-class configuration on one of its A380s, with seating for 598-passengers.

Mr Gordon said it would be up to individual airlines to manage passengers’ tolerance for more seats within existing spaces.

“Airlines are a business, so it makes sense for them to look at ways of efficiently increasing the seat count in aircraft but clearly it gets to a point where that will be it for certain aircraft types,” Mr Gordon said.

“It’s part of this trend to try to not add another frequency by putting extra seats in the aircraft.

“There are lots of reasons why airlines try to maximise the efficiency of their cabins.”

Airbus recently showcased a “budget economy” class for its A380s with 11 seats per row in a 3-5-3 configuration.

Mr Gordon said the economy seat pitch remained at 18 inches (1142.5px).

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