Airbus A380 Jets May Soon Carry 1,000 Passengers (POLL)

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It's either your worst nightmare or a dream come true: The new Airbus A380's may soon have capacity for 1,000 passengers, the Australian Business Traveler reports.

While the idea of what is being dubbed a "super cattle-class" plane may cause claustrophobes to breathe in just a bit deeper, those who love to fly may soon be heralding inventive design in a future class of airplanes.

This past weekend, Singapore Airlines ordered airplanes that would fit 407 passengers, which isn't entirely crazy considering Korean Air already flies a plane with seats for 409 people (see photo at left).

The Australian Business Traveler predicts that Qantas will soon have an A380 that can fit 497 passengers.

But the real whopper?

French airline Air Austral has ordered up planes from Airbus with room for 840 people, with plans to debut the jets in 2014. And Lufthansa and Air France are already eyeing the next generation of A380s, the A380-1000, which would have a passenger capacity of 1,000.

Australian newssite news.com reports that Richard Branson, the boss of the Virgin Airlines conglomerate, has already stated his preference a for longer, packed A380, coming in at 900 people, saying "Ideally, we'd like Airbus to stretch them because for the A380 to be really competitive it needs to be even bigger than it currently is."

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