An Airbus A350-1000 normally fits 369 passengers, but airlines wanted to know: would it be possible to reconfigure the seats and cram a few more people in there? At a press meeting today, the company announced airlines will be able to fit about twenty more passengers in each of its most popular models by the end of this decade.

“When you have a plane, there are various solutions for increasing efficiency,” head of programs Didier Evrard explained to reporters today. “One is improving fuel burn, another is getting in more seats.” Airbus claims to have done both with the A350-1000, bragging that it gets 25% better fuel efficiency than the model’s closest competitor over at Boeing, the 777-300ER.

Consumers aren’t the French plane-maker’s customers, after all. The airlines are, and airlines are delighted when they’re able to squeeze a few more people in the cabin. By reconfiguring the arrangement of the galley, bathrooms, and seats, they’re able to fit 20 more seats for a total of 389 passengers. That’s better than putting anyone in the overhead bins or getting rid of seats entirely, we suppose.

Airbus to Squeeze More Passengers Into Cabin of Largest A350 [Bloomberg News]

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