The arrival of the Airbus A380 will spur on expansion at a number of regional airports in the UK and around the world.
That is according to Leo Murray of Plane Stupid, a protest group which has opposed the construction of a third runway at London Heathrow Airport on environmental grounds.
He said that as well as raising overall passenger numbers, the A380 will encourage smaller gateways to expand in order to accommodate the massive aircraft.
As the world’s largest commercial airliner, the A380 has a theoretical maximum capacity of 853 passengers when configured in single-class, economy mode.
While its size inevitably means that carriers will be able to ferry more air travellers around, Mr Murray argued that it will also have unintended consequences for many bases.
“There are lots of airports in the world which currently cannot accommodate the Airbus A380,” he noted. “So actually it is going to be a driver for airport expansion.” Earlier this week, Qantas operated the first-ever transpacific commercial A380 flight between Australia and the US west coast.
