IN BRIEF | Emirates is investigating new economy seats for its Airbus A380 fleet but has ruled out plans for 11 abreast economy seating, putting pause to fears of a superjumbo sardine squeeze.

"It puts a middle seat in the five arrangement which is not very attractive," Emirates president Tim Clark said of his decision to nix an extra economy seat in the middle of what's currently a 3-4-3 layout.

"Imagine you've got a problem and you have to keep on getting out and going to the loo."

Read: Airbus supersizes the A380 superjumbo

Rather than piling more passengers into the cheap seats, Clark is looking to upgrade economy class seating, including boosting the size of each seta's video screen to 14 inches.

"Economy is a question of trying to get better ergonomics out of the seat design and try to enhance the comfort levels at the same time as take weight out of the seats" Clark told The Sydney Morning Herald on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Doha, Qatar.

Read more: Emirates rejects squeezing more seats into A380s

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