Those of us who live in Australia and want to escape sometimes won't have much choice as Singapore Airlines is the first customer and Qantas is also getting a dozen of these planes next year. Other airlines that fly here (e.g. Emirates) are following suit.

Actually Lucy I think it takes approx 600 rather than 800 and I'm sure it will have more loos and cabin crew.

Personally after the first couple of hours I find long haul flights are to be endured rather than enjoyed so I don't think it matters much to me if I'm in a section of a plane which has 400 or 600 or for that matter 1000 on board all together. All I know is that I look at that screen which tells me "Time to Destination 12 hours" and I go to sleep and when I wake up look at it again and it says "Time to destination 11 hours 55 minutes".

Of course it's all worth it when you get to the other end and you can forgive all those people behind you who put their knees in the back of your seat or grab it every time they get up. Not to mention the man in the shadow of whose armpit I spent my last long haul flight from Dubai to Sydney. I swear he hadn't changed his shirt since he was born. It was all I could do not to vomit, but was restrained by the thought that it would make the rank aroma even worse.....

By the way, from an environmental point of view I suppose the Airbus is an improvement on the 747 as it takes 50% more passengers but I don't think it would cause 50% more pollution or use 50% more fuel - although off course when the first one crashes it could kill 50% more people.

But never mind Lucy, it will still be more comfortable than that Vespa!

Michael Sydney, Australia