As expected, Air France has accelerated its A380 retirement and will be come the first airline to wholly retire its A380 fleet. That’s sad news in general, but particularly sad news for me.
Let me concede at the outset that life is not all about me. But since this is my blog and something I’ve written about on several occasions, I hope you can appreciate my particular sadness over this decision by Air France.
I love the A380. It’s my second-favorite aircraft (to the 747) and I have enjoyed incredible journeys around the world in it over the years. In fact, I’ve flown first class on the A380 on nearly every airline that offers it:
- ANA
- Asiana
- British Airways
- China Southern
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Lufthansa
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
- Thai Airways
There are two airlines missing. One is Korean Air, the other is… (you guessed it) Air France. For years, I’ve wanted to try the Air France A380 in first class.
> Read More: My Strong Desire To Fly The Air France A380…
Yes, I even had a trip on the Air France A380 booked for this autumn.
And now that won’t happen. As long as Korean Air stays alive and keeps the A380, Air France will be the only carrier whose A380 I never flew. That hurts…
CONCLUSION
From a practical perspective, it just made sense to retire the entire A380 fleet. First Class was ancient and business class was uncompetitive. More importantly, Air France’s fleet simplification strategy makes sense from both a cost and environmental perspective.
But not flying on the Air France A380 in first class will be a huge regret for the rest of my life. Oh, I’ll sleep just fine, but it is a great reminder that if you snooze, you loose.
Now I’ll request a refund on that Air France La Premiere deal…
Matthew, I am on the exact same boat…Flown every other A380 operator’s F class except for AF(only biz) and BA(never set foot on their A380) before. Now this will remain a forever burning hole on my list of things to achieve…
TBH, Matthew, you really are not missing much of anything. I was subjected to it for a few years as they often used it out of Dulles. I was so relieved when they began using the 777-300. What a difference.
With that said I know it’s about checking it off. But it’s kind of like saying, “I want to eat moldy bread just to say I did it.”
I thought it was fascinating to fly the A380, and have flown on them in business class on AF and BA. They were so big it made the flight noticeably smoother. I would not want to have flown one in economy though. Way too dense back there. But I completely understand why they are dropping them. Even before the coronavirus, it was clear that far too few routes had enough people consistently flying between enough hubs to make it widely practical. And both embarking and disembarking that many people at once was kind of a zoo, too, for gates, lounges, and passport control. Airbus bet wrong.
Better than me. I have never been on an A380 because too many airlines use the 737, A320, 777, A330. If flying within the US, it seems to be 737 or A320, no choice.
Pre-pandemic, you could usually find hub to hub routes with wide bodies as they reposition the aircraft. I’ve enjoyed the 772 from DEN-SFO and the 788 on DEN-IAD, and I know Delta was doing similar with some of their hub to hub routes. The problem with the A380 is that there are very few airport pairs that were so slot constrained to drive the need for such a large plane. And because it has too much volume, there is no market to be used as a cargo plane.
I enjoyed my two Business Class flights on Air France A380’s, but then I flew Business on one of their A350’s. Wow. What a difference. I’ll miss *seeing* the Air France double-deckers, because I think they look awesome in the company’s livery, but given a choice, I would always book an A350.
Matthew, why does this news prompt you to request a refund for the La Première deal? Hadn’t they downgraded people to business on that anyway?
I booked two tickets. One just for the A380. Without that, no need to keep it.
Matthew, I have flown every 380 in First Class and as far as the hard product is concerned, I rank it the worst of all 14. At least the BA one looks better. However, the ground and onboard service for AF F passengers…pretty much unbeatable.
Agreed on ground service, which I experienced when I flew the 77W in first class.
Get over yourself. Given the global crisis I think the world will keep revolving if you haven’t flown AF’s crap A380 F product
Sorry but it takes a bit of cheek to whinge so much about not flying an A380 while people are dying…
Read the disclaimer, darling.
Hi, I kind of felt the same way. I was content to fly in economy if I could. In 2012, I had a flight booked to Europe on the Air France A380 from Dulles. My return flight was on a 777-200. Less than a week before the flight, I got a notice that the A380 had been swapped to another plane, which was a 777-300ER. While that is also a nice plane, I had bought the ticket in part to fly on the A380. I took some other flight options on the last few trips to Europe, such as the 747-8 on Lufthansa, and since Air France did not fly to A380 to the Washington, DC area as much when I traveled in winter. My plan had been to fly on the Air France A380 on my very next trip to Europe in summer 2021, and if all else failed in 2022, before it was retired. So, yes, I feel a bit the same way. Additionally, I have never been on an A380 yet, so that 2012 changed flight just makes the situation disappointing. When you get very close to something you were hoping for and still miss it, sometimes it makes it more painful. I will try to catch some British Airways and/or Lufthansa flights on the A380 if I can. And in no way am am trying to diminish all the other things going on with Coronavirus. I know a lot of people are going through much tougher things than this.