European aircraft maker Airbus said Tuesday it had sold its first A380 airliners configured to carry a maximum of 840 passengers in a single class.
French carrier Air Austral, based in the overseas territory of La Reunion, ordered two of the aircraft to serve its high-density route from La Reunion to Paris.
The standard three-class configuration for the A380, the largest commercial airliner ever built, has room for 525 passengers.
"With the Air Austral configuration, fuel consumption levels below two litres per passenger per 100 kilometres can be expected," Airbus said.
Currently, 20 A380s are in service with four carriers, serving 13 international routes. A total of 202 of the so-called superjumbos were ordered by 17 airlines.
However, production problems have caused significant delays in the delivery of the plane to its customers.
