How big is the world's largest passenger aircraft?

The A380 is the only commercial aircraft with two full-length decks. Its fuselage measures 72.7 m, its wingspan reaches 79.8 m, and its tail rises 24.1 m above the runway, the height of an eight-storey building. Maximum take-off weight is 575 t (1,268,000 lb), and its four engines — Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance GP7200 — each produce between 310 and 340 kN of thrust. In a typical three- or four-class layout it carries about 500 passengers; certification allows up to 853 in an all-economy configuration, though no airline has ever flown it that way. Emirates, with more than a hundred aircraft, is its largest operator.

The 79.8 m figure is no accident: ICAO caps the maximum width of Code F, the largest airport category, at 80 m. Airbus designed the wing just under that limit so the aircraft would fit the gates and taxiways of major hubs, and even so many airports had to reinforce runways, widen taxiways and build double boarding bridges. A larger aircraft would have required new infrastructure worldwide.

The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, at 76.3 m, is the longest passenger aircraft ever built, but its wingspan (68.4 m), maximum weight (448 t) and capacity (about 410 seats in three classes) all fall short of the A380's. Both programmes are now closed: the last A380 was delivered in 2021, and the last 747, a freighter, in 2023. No manufacturer has a successor of that size on the books, since airlines now prefer smaller, more efficient twinjets such as the 777X or the A350.