A380 Unique Cabin Sets New Standards for In-Flight Experience

A380 is proving to be a hit with passengers, striking many with “Love at First Flight”

Any visitor to this year’s Paris Air Show could not help but see the ‘Love at First Flight’ promotional campaign, enabling any of the 15 million passengers that have already flown on the A380 to record their experience at the website www.lovea380.com. What is apparent in the first 3.5 years of service is that the A380 has set a new benchmark for passenger comfort.

Inevitably, as the A380 is seen by many of our airline customers as their flagship product, a number of innovative concepts have been introduced. But behind the individual customer brands are architectural choices and technical features all designed to enhance each passenger’s journey, with quantum leaps in cabin spaciousness and quietness. This has led to extremely high levels of customer satisfaction that have resulted in changes in passenger travel preference not seen since the introduction of the 747 in the early 1970’s.

Wherever you sit on the aircraft, the A380 provides you with immediately noticeable space, the widest cabin ever enabling substantially wider seats in Economy Class (1.5in wider than on a 747), and a remarkably quiet, relaxing flying experience. A380 innovations also include new standards of in-flight entertainment using fibre-optic distribution, new lighting systems, flight control technologies to limit the effects of turbulence, plus typically 15% more overhead stowage volume per passenger in Economy Class.

Passengers on the A380 can also stay connected, using their own wireless communication devices, as the aircraft supports state-of-the-art broadband connectivity via internet and mobile telephony.

What fundamentally makes the A380 such a winner is its greater floor space (50 percent more than the Boeing 747-400) and its unique double deck arrangement, which provides extra capacity while improving the passenger experience, avoiding any mass transport effect thanks to moderately-sized cabin compartments between doors. Importantly, the A380 cabin architecture was designed for efficient boarding and deplaning, with turnarounds no longer than a Boeing 747-400. The wide stairs at the front with their stylish swept lighting are connecting both decks and are the signature of the aircraft. The A380 unique architecture offers more opportunities than ever to innovate, with for instance various “social areas” designed by the six airlines operating 54 A380s so far that make for an even more pleasant journey.

Along with more space, higher comfort in every class and innovations in social areas and cabin systems, perhaps the most widely acknowledged benefit of A380 travel is the inherently low noise level. That, along with making the aircraft quiet outside for more operational freedom and higher acceptance around airports, is a function of its state-of-the-art engines (Rolls-Royce Trent900 or engine Alliance GP7000); but also the result of careful design of the low-velocity air conditioning system and the low drag fuselage shape, that resulted in, quite simply, the quietest cabin in the sky.

Similar attention to detail in cabin temperature control and air quality, combined with the much lower noise, lead to the lower fatigue levels happily reported by passengers and flight and cabin crews alike.
As the A380 network develops, and more customers take delivery of their A380s, many more passengers will experience ‘Love at first flight’. If that already includes you, do not hesitate to log on to lovea380.comand tell us.

For more information:
Keith Stonestreet
A380 Product Marketing Director
keith.stonestreet@airbus.com