Posted on 06/28/2020 8:49:01 AM PDT by texas booster
The final Airbus A380 in the Air France fleet is grounded at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG), after taking one last celebration flight to the Mediterranean Sea and back. In a tribute online, the French flag carrier announced the final departure and landing for the superjumbo jet on June 26, 2020.
The legendary #A380 bids a final farewell and makes its last #AirFrance flight today, Friday 26 june. 🛬Bye-bye big bird! #AF380 pic.twitter.com/LNkkqX3htU
— Air France (@airfrance) June 26, 2020
Originally scheduled for retirement by 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Air France-KLM to reconsider their plans. After flights around the world were stopped and the demand for travel plummeted, the airline announced on May 20, 2020 they would immediately begin phasing out all A380 operations.
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The final Air France A380 flight matches another marker of the aircraft’s demise. Earlier in June 2020, the last A380 components built near Saint-Nazare, France departed on its final convoy for Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse, France.
Although Air France is ending their A380 operations, the program as a whole is expected to live on for years. According to Airbus’ sale sheet, the manufacturer has outstanding deliveries due to All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Emirates.
(Excerpt) Read more at flyertalk.com ...
Another end of another era in air travel.
Bye Bye whale!
What a epic failure of a airplane program… Fleet not even 15 years old and its gone, and how many millions of dollars blown by airports around the globe to rebuild gates and taxiways to accommodate the bloated beast?
The rebuilding of runways and terminals to accommodate this massive heavyweight was very expensive, and the changes to landing patterns due to its' trailing vortices's will not be missed by any pilots that had to land behind it.
The best. It may be un-economic to operate, but the A380's premature departure is a tragic loss for passengers who fly long-haul routes.
Yep, best experience ever.
Good nice plane but one which was not the right fit for the market.
It was a short era. The A380 was a failure almost from the start. It was so obviously a product of bureaucratic arrogance, politics, and central-planning. It had nothing to do with what the world really wanted.
The irony is that Boeing got it exactly right with is notion of airplanes for point-to-point travel, but then shot themselves in the foot with their own bureaucratic arrogance, and management's Wall Street inspired financial skimming.
Well, that was quick.
Flew on it a few times between FRA and SFO.
Having a 60 seat biz class was quite the accommodation. Nice seats, although not as nice as Virgin Atlantic.
Fun feature: forward and downward looking cameras that allow you to see the terrain you’re passing over and a great view from the upper tail mounted camera, great fun to watch during take off/landing.
...after taking one last celebration flight to the Mediterranean Sea and back... Originally scheduled for retirement by 2022...
...Air France gave thanks for the stoked panic about the Wuhan Virus and used it as a pretext to pull the plug early.
It may be un-economic to operate...
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It’s economical when it’s full. One of the biggest problems is the A380 is meant to fly from hub to hub. Passengers prefer to fly to their destinations nonstop.
You gotta be sh!tn me! That plane hasnt been around but..what..14 years? Was it that much of a money pit to maintain? Man o man. Airbus was so totally subsidized by the EU to for that beast...man they gotta be butt hurting over that deal huh? Geeze...all that work. Whew!
The predecessor of Airbus built the Concorde. Another great airplane that wasn’t economical.
We were on an Air France 747 from CDG => ATL on a Delta code share a few years back. It was quite nice. We were in coach, but the config had coach upstairs, and we’d gotten those seats. The complimentary bubbly was a good plus.
Wonder how many airports will maintain those special features needed to service the A380? Terminals with 400+ passenger seating, two-level gates and such will be rarely used now...
“superjumbo jet”
Have they picked a new moniker for the next ones, yet?
I’ve flown the A380 several times...always in Cattle Class.It’s certainly a nice aircraft but no better than any other I’ve flown.But it must be noted that I’ve never flown the 787 of the 747-8...which are both said to be *outstanding* aircraft. I’ve read a number of times that the 787 and the A350 are the planes of the future.
Emirates has 100+ of them.And they ain’t cheap.Perhaps in future was can look for East Kansas Airways,having picked a used one up for $100,offering A380 service from Topeka to Lubbock.
“The predecessor of Airbus built the Concorde. Another great airplane that wasn’t economical.”
Jet fuel cost about 30 cents a gallon when the Concord first started flying and it is a thirsty aircraft. Fuel burn is what killed this airplane. It was not economic when fuel prices rose greatly.
“Perhaps in future was can look for East Kansas Airways,having picked a used one up for $100,offering A380 service from Topeka to Lubbock.”
In the 1980s, the old Piedmont Airlines was using 727s (another nice but, ultimately, uneconomic airplane) on its puddle-hopper route from Washington, DC to Charlottesville, VA, to ... to Charlotte, NC. Never more than 50 people on the airplane. when I flew on it.
Almost any aircraft can be quite comfortable dependent on the seating arrangement. It can also be horrible if they use the “sardine pack” seating.
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