Airbus Industrie predicts there will be 'ample' demand in the booming Asia-Pacific market for its proposed new 'flying hotel' capable of carrying nearly 1,000 passengers.
Airbus said it had identified a market for nearly 1,400 of the aircraft flying nearly three times as many passengers as existing jumbo jets.
Cathay Pacific chairman Peter Sutch said: 'I think there will be room in the Cathay fleet for super jumbos.' John Leahy, senior commercial vice-president for Airbus, said the four-nation consortium was also engaged in 'very serious discussions' with Singapore Airlines and British Airways.
Although no firm orders or options had yet been announced, Airbus was 'being encouraged by some of the world's finest airlines to develop a competitor to Boeing' in the market for wide-body jets.
Airbus hopes to be flying the new aircraft within seven years.
The superjumbo project, known as 3XX, has been envisaged for several years, but only recently did the French-led European consortium upstage rivals Boeing by unveiling plans for the superjumbo with room for 990 passengers and a hold big enough to house bedrooms, a conference centre, a gymnasium and even a medical centre.
