Airbus

Another victim of the Covid-19 pandemic, Air France's fleet of nine Airbus A380s will not be returned to service once the crisis is over for the carrier. Air France had decided to ground these nine aircraft at the start of the pandemic, but the crisis hastened the decision to stop operating them. Originally,...

The announcement of a €7 billion support plan for Air France, made official on 24 April, included a number of quid pro quos, and the environmental aspect was explicitly targeted. Wednesday's comments by Bruno Le Maire confirmed the creditor's demands of the company, emphasising that "this support for Air France is not a condition for the...

On 2 July, Gulf Air's Airbus A321neo will take to the tarmac at Nice airport for the first time. The 166-seater aircraft, including 16 seats in Business Class, will connect the Côte d'Azur airport with Bahrain every Thursday and Sunday. The route will nevertheless be limited to the summer period,...

Where does Airbus stand today? François Caudron - Airbus has been in existence for 50 years. It's been a remarkable journey, because 50 years is not a long time! We were just a concept, but today we are the leader in single-aisle aircraft, with a short-haul market share of 60 %. And on long-haul routes, we fluctuate between 45 % and...

What is your assessment of the first year of this governance alongside Benjamin Smith? Anne Rigail - With Ben Smith, a climate of trust has been established with our employees and our social partners. His knowledge of the business has greatly facilitated relations with all our staff, who are now proud to have a management team that knows their business...

What if tomorrow's aircraft were not as we know it today, i.e. with a tubular fuselage, wings stretched like birds' and jet engines fuelled by paraffin? Admittedly, that's a long way off, as most of the projects are still in the engineers' computers. But we're almost there. Last June, KLM and...

On the eve of celebrating 70 years of flying in Canada, Air France has just sent out a strong signal in this strategic market. "Toulouse", the first Airbus A350 delivered a month ago by the European aircraft manufacturer, now serves Toronto daily from Paris CDG. On 27 October, passengers on flight AF 356 from Paris CDG airport to...

Lufthansa currently relies on a heterogeneous fleet, particularly on its long-haul routes, which fluctuate between Boeing 747s and Airbus A350s, or even MD-11s for its freight flights. The company is therefore planning to rationalise the entire fleet of wide-body aircraft used by the group's airlines. The aim is to reduce the number of different types of long-haul aircraft...

The delivery of the first six Airbus A350-900s between now and the end of the year and in 2020 will revolutionise passenger comfort and deliver major cost savings, particularly in terms of fuel consumption, explained Benjamin Smith and Anne Rigail, respectively CEO of Air France KLM and CEO of Air France, on the...

It's about time... Air France is one of the last major airlines not to have ordered new aircraft for its short- and medium-haul network for almost a decade. Some of the airline's aircraft on its short-haul routes are now flirting with the age of 18, a more than venerable age in the airline industry...

Emirates' decision was a fatal blow to the Airbus A380 programme, which will officially come to an end with the delivery of the last dozen aircraft of this type to the Dubai-based airline. At Air France, one of the A380's longest-standing airlines, with the first aircraft delivered in 2009, the first signs of disenchantment with the...

Five years before the opening ceremony, we may well know the first winners and losers of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The CDG Express has been out of the running since the end of May. On the other hand, flying taxis could take advantage of the Olympics to make a spectacular breakthrough. On 18 June, at the...

In the A320 neo family, there was already the Airbus A321neo, which redefined the standards of the Airbus A321 by offering fuel savings of 25 %. Then came the A321LR with its additional 15 % range, allowing flights between Paris and Montreal or the Persian Gulf, for example, with aircraft...

In its 50 years of existence, European aerospace giant Airbus has established itself as a pioneer in the use of cutting-edge aeronautical technologies. As Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury explains: "The Airbus story is one of ambition and progress, a showcase for European integration. Over the past 50 years, the company has pioneered many firsts...

Will tomorrow's business travel take place on board an electric aircraft? Possibly, if Airbus is anything to go by. The European aircraft manufacturer has even signed a memorandum of understanding with SAS with this in mind. The two partners plan to start working on hybrid and electric aircraft in June. "As part of the...

The VivaTech 2019 event, which opened in Paris on Thursday, once again put the spotlight on innovation in the broadest sense, with no fewer than 2,000 start-ups gathered in the 56,000 m² of exhibition space at Porte de Versailles. While the cameras were often focused on the VIP events organised at the Dôme de Paris (Emmanuel...

The A380 has been the cornerstone of Emirates' strategy for 20 years. But the Airbus has also meant that Emirates has missed out on a number of opportunities... In particular, services to secondary cities, an option that Emirates has often had to forego, with a fleet of high-capacity long-haul aircraft. So, for the past nine months, the airline has been fine-tuning a...

Boeing for one, Airbus for the other: there's movement in air transport in the French Pacific with the delivery of new aircraft for the two carriers, Air Tahiti Nui and Aircalin. Air Tahiti Nui is in fact the first to put into service the first of its four Boeing 787-900s, which...

Not surprisingly, Airbus announced on Thursday the end of the A380 programme, and the date of the last delivery. Reviewing its flight plan, Emirates has decided to make a strategic shift, swapping its very large aircraft for smaller, easier to fill aircraft. "The consequence of this...

It was barely twelve years ago that the Airbus A380 made its first commercial flight, under the colours of Singapore Airlines. Its days now seem numbered. In fact, this aircraft, which can carry up to 600 passengers, has been only half a success. It is only present in the fleets of 15 international airlines worldwide, including Air France in Europe,...