For travellers fed up with being treated like cattle, it sounds like the ultimate nightmare: an airline has ordered the first all-economy-class A380 superjumbo, kitted out to cram in a record-breaking, claustrophobia-inducing 840 passengers.

The monster plane has been ordered by the French company Air Austral, which flies between Paris and the island of Réunion, in the Indian Ocean — a move that has surprised industry observers, who predicted the superjumbo would be used only between large hub airports such as Heathrow and Singapore.

The manufacturers were quick to dismiss fears that it would be a flying cattle truck. “It’s not a question of how many people you have on the plane with you, but how much room you have,” said Airbus chief John Leahy. He insisted that each individual passenger would have more space than on the A380’s smaller rivals.

Airlines currently using the double-decker plane — which include Emirates, Singapore, Qantas and Air France — all employ a three-class configuration and carry up to 538 passengers. Singapore even boasts double beds for its first-class passengers.

Not so Air Austral — some observers have voiced doubts that airports will be able to handle the loading and unloading of a plane with more than 800 passengers, but Air Austral president Gérard Ethève said: “We handle 550 people at the airports at the moment. Handling another 200 is not going to be difficult.”

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