Airbus Group is exploring ways of carving out extra space on its A380 superjumbos in order to boost capacity and enhance margins for operators, among them modifying the staircases that connect the double-decker jet’s two passenger floors. Feedback from existing A380 customers suggests that curved steps located toward the rear of the world’s biggest jetliner are rarely used since passengers have little need to move between levels, opening up the possibility of making them less of a design feature to create more room. The planes also feature double-width stairs at the front reminiscent of those from on ocean liner. Re-arranging fixtures and fittings within the A380 could accommodate 60 more customers without reducing the width or pitch of its seats, according to Kiran Rao, Airbus’s director of strategy and marketing. The planemaker is working with clients including Qantas Airways Ltd. to boost per-flight revenue. Many early A380 operators chose to customize the plane with perks such as showers, found on Emirates aircraft, and lavish duty-free displays, on Korean Airlines. While that established the model as a fleet flagship it held back capacity, with Korean offering 409 seats on a plane designed to carry 525. Airbus has already added nine berths to the 150-seat A320 short-haul model and 20 to the A321, which previously held 185 people. Measures such as moving lavatories or crew rest areas helped achieve those increases and would work just as well on the A380, Rao said.<br/>
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The Bulgarian government started a tender for a 35-year concession to operate Sofia Airport, the country’s biggest, demanding at least 660m lev (US$382m) in initial payment. The concessionaire will be required to invest at least 307m lev in the airport, which includes building a new terminal with an annual capacity of 3m passengers, to replace its oldest one, the Transport Ministry said Friday. The government also seeks a minimal annual concession fee of 10m lev, or at least 7% of the airport’s net annual revenue, the Ministry said. Possible candidates for the concession include Spain’s Ferrovial SA, operator of London’s Heathrow airport; Fraport AG, which runs Bulgarian Black Sea airports Varna and Bourgas; Vinci SA, Turkey’s Limak Holding AS, operator of Munich Airport, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski said in May.<br/>
Aeromexico will host the 73rd IATA annual general meeting next year, staging it in Cancun, Mexico. It will be the first AGM to be led by incoming IATA DG and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. IATA announced the selection of Cancun at the closing session Friday of its 72nd AGM, hosted by Aer Lingus in Dublin. The 2017 event will be held June 4-6 and will be the third time the AGM will be held in Mexico. Also during this year’s AGM closing session, IATA delegates confirmed that de Juniac will succeed Tony Tyler as IATA DG and CEO from Sept. 1. He will leave his current position as Air France-KLM chairman and CEO at the end of July. Willie Walsh, CEO of International Airlines Group, succeeds Aeromexico CEO Andres Conesa as IATA chairman of the board of governors. Walsh will be succeeded in June 2017 by Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong.<br/>