The Largest Passenger Plane Can Hold Over 850 Seats - Here's Which Airlines Use It

Airbus is one of the most familiar names in aerospace design and manufacturing, with more than 12,000 aircraft, both commercial and freight, in service worldwide. The company was established in 1969, but it can trace its roots back to a 1967 agreement between France, Germany, and England that coordinated efforts to advance the field of aviation. The first Airbus model, the A300B1, took flight in 1972. Thirty-five years later, in 2007, the largest passenger aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380, entered service — and several airlines still use it today.

The A380 is the only commercial airplane with a full-length double-deck design. This allows carriers to devote one deck to premium seats and one deck to economy seats and still accommodate more than 400 economy passengers. When it's configured for only economy passengers, this massive jet can hold 853 people. One of its closest competitors, the Boeing 747-8, can't come close, with most configurations holding about 460 passengers.

It's not only unique to fly on, the A380 is also hard to miss in the sky above you. Its distinctive shape and 262-foot wingspan, along with its four massive engines, make it a favorite for plane spotters. 

Airbus ceased production of the A380 in 2021, but it's still used for long-haul flights all over the world. The airlines that operate the A380 are British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, Qantas, Etihad, Asiana, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air, All Nippon Airways, and Qatar Airways. Though it has a maximum capacity of more than 850 seats, many airlines have it configured for fewer. The three-class layout with about 500 seats is popular.

Since 2007, the A380 has logged more than 800,000 flights, carrying more than 300 million passengers all over the world. Emirates has the largest fleet of A380s of any airline, which is not surprising when you consider the aircraft's range of about 8,000 nautical miles. Its flights between Dubai and London's Heathrow airport are the busiest routes consistently flying A380s.

While some airlines reportedly had big plans for the A380 when they first took flight, envisioning the ultimate luxury, casinos, and even gyms, those visions never came to fruition. In 2020, Business Insider reported that some analysts see the A380 as Airbus's biggest mistake, designed for a non-existent market. While there are still thousands of A380s in the air, commercial aviation is gravitating toward smaller, more fuel-efficient planes that can still fly long distances with fewer passengers. The Airbus A350-1000, which Qantas selected to replace its fleet of A380s, seats up to 400 passengers and has a range of 9,000 nautical miles.