Qantas has just recently released a statement saying that its passengers’ comfort will not in anyway be compromised by its profit recovery plan to increase the number of seats that it offers. Right now the plan is to increase the number of seats that it offers on its A380 super jumbos to 550 seats.

The airline is planning to add these extra 100 seats to 12 of its airplanes. Of course, the company is also talking about lifting its passenger numbers on nine Boeing 747’s from 305 to 359. Pretty much, this will effectively end the golden era of luxury air travel.

Expensive first class cabins aboard both model airlines will be carved up to make way for extra business class and premium economy seats. The airline’s chief executive, Alan Joyce, said that the first class seats would be available only on Australia to London flights and on trans-Pacific services to Los Angeles.

Joyce continued that the new arrangement would not see passengers crammed like cattle into economy cabins, however. They will get a better deal, because they will be stripping out the old economy seats on the 747’s and replacing them with the wider seats used by economy passengers traveling on the A380s. They will also be getting a new entertainment system preloaded with up to 500 movies.

Overall, the goal for Qantas is to offer more seats on one flight, meaning that they can sell more tickets and have to fly less, which saves on gas. Although some say that having extra people on the plane will increase gas consumption, it is still better to fly one flight than it is two flights despite the gas consumed by adding extra passengers.