SANTA CLARA — For the 49ers’ travel plans to Australia, size does matter. In order to keep as many players and personnel as comfortable as possible on their lengthy flight for their Week 1 contest with the Los Angeles Rams, the team chartered the largest passenger plane in the world for their trip “Down Under.”
San Francisco usually employs a United aircraft and crew, but for the approximately 16-hour flight to Melbourne, Australia, proper measures needed to be taken, which included chartering a Qantas double-decker Airbus A380 aircraft.
Who will sit where has little to do with seniority, according to left tackle Trent Williams, who noted that some of the team’s more senior coaches have earned the right to travel in comfort.
“The standard [seats] that we use all the time, I don’t think it’s that comfortable for anyone over 6’1,” Williams said with a laugh. “That includes a lot of people on an NFL roster, but hopefully we get something a little bigger than that.”
The A380 has 14 first class seats on the lower level that include an extended lay-flat...
Mentioned in this article: Trent Williams