Why Did Air France Retire The A380?

The Airbus A380 is the world's largest airliner, and although it was a commercial failure, it was used by several flag carriers, including Air France. Air France had a total of ten A380s, first delivered in 2009, and with Paris being one of the world's largest business hubs and one of the world's most visited cities by tourists, the enormous double-decker would appear to be a slam dunk. Today, however, Air France doesn't have a single Airbus A380 in its fleet, and it was the first airline in the world to retire its A380 fleet.

The Airbus A380 was removed from Air France's fleet during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when air travel was down by over 90%. A thirsty quadjet wth two passenger decks that seated over 500 passengers was the wrong aircraft for the time, and while Air France was the first airline to remove its A380 fleet, it certainly wasn't the last. However, other carriers like Lufthansa and Qatar Airways have brought back their A380 fleets (mainly due to new aircraft delays), whereas Air France has retired the King of the Skies for good.

Overview Of The Air France A380 Fleet

Air France operated a total of 10 Airbus A380-800s, delivered between 2009 and 2014, according to Planespotters.net. But while Airbus frequently marketed the A380 as a replacement for the Boeing 747-400, this wasn't the case for Air France. By the 2010s, its 747-400s were in a far denser two-class configuration, and the four-class A380s had more than double the business class seats, along with a first class cabin. The 747s were actually replaced by Boeing 777-300ERs, while the A380 was really serving a new role for the airline.

Air France has three configurations for its Boeing 777-300ERs: a four-class layout, a three-class layout with 48 business class seats that took over most Boeing 747 routes, and a high-density version with only 14 business class seats. As per aeroLOPA, the Airbus A380 came with nine La Première seats, 80 business class seats, 38 premium economy seats, and 389