IMAGES. The A380 of Air France, a last flight and then goes

This Friday, the management of Air France has invited two hundred people to a final flight farewell to its iconic A380. A program stopped in haste.

This is a page of the contemporary history of Air France, which runs this Friday. Has 15H50, the super jumbo A380 will make its last flight, carrying nearly 200 guests sorted on the shutter, for the most part of the employees and the drivers who participated in this adventure that has lasted for eleven years.

to tell the truth, if the output of the A380 fleet Air France had already been decided by the new strong man of the group, the Canadian Ben Smith, the timetable for withdrawal was originally planned for the end of 2022. But the crisis of the coronavirus, which will lead to a vast reorganization plan with deletion of 8000 to 10000 jobs in the group, accelerated the decision. The A380 stops, fault to recovery of long-haul flights, which promises to be particularly slow and uncertain.

New-York, his field of play

Yet, when in 2009, Air France receives its first copy of the part of Airbus, the enthusiasm is well known. On November 23, the plane takes off for New York and JFK airport, which became its main home port outside Charles-De-Gaulle. The United States has always been a destination of choice for the A380 of Air France because half of the 40 000 flights made for the account of the national company, were made on the transatlantic axis.

On the track at the start of Roissy

Air France

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In the detail, behind New York (18%), one finds Los Angeles (10%), San Francisco, and Washington (9%), Miami (5%), and Atlanta (up to 0.5%). And among other fields of play favoured by Air France for its largest commercial aircraft, China (13%) and Mexico (8.5 percent), have also been very helpful to the programmers of flight.

on board the flight AF006, the famous line between Paris and New York

Air France

Only, the A380, even in the limited configurability chosen by Air France (516 seats), has always been a pain to fill. The european authorities had certified the plane for a gauge that can reach over 800 seats ! But Air France wanted to limit the charges and was, with Korean Air, one of the companies the most reasonable in the race to gigantism.

18 million passengers carried

The cabin of the French version as well includes 9 seats said "The First", a kind of small private rooms with bed fully reclining. Behind, there are 80 seats in Business, 38 seats called Premium Economy, and 389 seats in Economy.

Menu elegant pieces, genuine engravings for "The First"

Air France

One of the characteristics of Air France is that the company was not the full owner of its fleet. On the ten devices operated, the half was actually in the lease. Including the F-HPJH chosen for this flight farewell, a device approved in 2012 and which belongs to a French bank.

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At the time of the closing of the chapter, Air France will fly 18 million passengers on its Super Jumbo. And history will record that the last commercial flight was operated on the 23rd of march last, between Johannesburg and Paris, nearly a week after the establishment of the containment. Rather a nice release, because if there is a link where Air France has a well carved out of the croupières to its competitors, including the companies in the Gulf, it is well to South Africa.

An Airbus A380, left Los Angeles to Paris, on the tarmac of the airport in Salt Lake City, after having been baffled in the wake of anonymous threats evoking the presence of a bomb on board, November 17, 2015

afp.com/GEORGE FREY

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His famous flight nights have always been popular, both for the business or leisure. Cape town and Johannesburg weighed 15% of the activity of the A380 of Air France. Well but it is not sufficient to enable the aircraft hit with the passengers to continue flying.