How Many Airbus Types Has Air France Operated?

Air France has long been a loyal customer of the European-built Airbus aircraft.

With one of its main construction sites and headquarters in Toulouse, the presence of Airbus products has long been a source of pride in France.

The national airline has naturally shown an interest in Airbus products across the range of types since the first A300B2 flew in 1972. Even today, the airline operates the latest models, including the A220 and A350.

Now part of the Air France-KLM Group, the French national carrier tends to pool its orders at a central point, with types split across the Air France, KLM, Transavia and Transavia France fleets.

How Many Airbus Types Has Air France Operated?

Steve Fitzgerald (GFDL 1.2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html> or GFDL 1.2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html>), via Wikimedia Commons

The first Airbus aircraft to join the Air France fleet was an A300B2-100 in 1974. Since then, the airline has operated 18 different Airbus types and variants. They are:

Airbus A300B2-100 – 1974-1994

Airbus A300B4-200 – 1976-1998

Airbus A310-200 – 1984-2002

Airbus A310-300 – 1989-2002

Airbus A318-100 – 2003-present

Airbus A319-100 – 1997-present

A rare Airbus A320-100. Laurent ERRERA from L’Union, France, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Airbus A320-100 – 1988-2010

Airbus A320-200 – 1989-present

Airbus A321-100 – 1997-present

Airbus A321-200 – 1998-present

Air France A340-300

Airbus A330-200 – 2005-present

Airbus A340-200 – 1993-1999

Airbus A340-300 – 1994-2020

Airbus A350-900 – 2019-present

Airbus A380-800 – 2009-2020

What Future Airbus Types Will Air France Operate?

As well as more Airbus A220s due for delivery of the coming years (see below), Air France is also set to take delivery of the brand new A350F freighter variant.

Up to 8 examples have been ordered (however, the airline can switch these to passenger variants if it wished), which will be used on the airline’s cargo network, which at present only includes the Boeing 777 Freighter.

Air France is also expected to take delivery of the larger A350-1000 model, but no date has yet been identified for first delivery.

What Happened to the Air France A380 Fleet?

Air France was one of the many airlines to operate the giant Airbus A380 aircraft.

This super-jumbo enjoyed flagship status with Air France, but by the time the Covid-19 pandemic hit the airline was struggle to justify the cost and large capacity of the type.

It was eventually retired completely by 2020, with some aircraft scrapped and some in long-term storage.

Why No A320neo Family in Air France?

Despite operating a fleet of almost 70 Airbus A320ceo (classic engine option) family aircraft, Air France at present has no plans to operate the A320neo (new engine option) family.

This is despite an order for 100 of the type placed by Air France-KLM a few years ago.

The aircraft in this order are being delivered to KLM and the two Transavia carriers. So far, none have been identified as heading for Air France.

It is instead choosing to replace its A318 and A319 (the smaller A320 family members) aircraft with the A220-300, of which almost 40 had been delivered at the time of writing. The total order comprised 60 aircraft.