China News Agency, Paris, May 20 (Reporter Li Yang) Air France-KLM (France KLM), headquartered in France, issued a statement on the 20th local time that Air France ended the operation of the Airbus A380 and retired the aircraft. The entire fleet of passenger jets.
The new coronary pneumonia epidemic prompted Air France to make a decision to end the operation of the Airbus A380, and the fleet was retired. The original plan to retire the fleet was at the end of 2022. The statement stated that the relevant decision was in line with the Air France KLM Group's "Fluid Simplification Strategy", by continuing to transition to a more modern, higher-performance aircraft to make airlines more competitive.
The statement said that Air France currently has 9 Airbus A380 passenger aircraft, 5 of which are Air France or finance leases, and 4 are operating leases. Air France first received the Airbus A380 in October 2009, making it the first airline in Europe to operate the aircraft. Prior to the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, Air France operated A380 passenger aircraft from Paris to Johannesburg, South Africa, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Washington, and Shanghai, China.
The statement also said that Air France ’s Airbus A380 will be replaced by a new generation of aircraft, including the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 that are being delivered.
After Airbus announced in February last year that it would cease production of the A380 aircraft, the Air France KLM Group had sprouted plans to retire the Airbus A380 fleet, arguing that the competitive environment restricted the operation of the aircraft. The Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger aircraft and can accommodate more than 800 seats. Due to the huge fuselage of this type of aircraft, ordinary airports cannot meet its landing conditions.
The new coronary pneumonia epidemic has seriously affected Air France ’s daily operations. Since the end of March, Air France ’s capacity has only maintained 3% to 5% of its normal schedule. Air France plans to gradually restore capacity to 15% from this week to June, especially to resume domestic flights in France and flights to French overseas provinces and some European countries. (Finish)