LONDON – On November 25, the French flag carrier airline, Air France, part of the Air France-KLM Group, took delivery of its 20th Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
The front of the fuselage bears the name “Angers”, a tribute to the city in the West of France, once home to the kings of France.
20th Airbus A350
At a delivery ceremony at Airbus’ manufacturing facility in Toulouse, France, Air France celebrated the delivery of its 20th Airbus A350-900 aircraft, alongside Airbus and their leasing partner, Avolon.
Their latest Airbus A350, registered as F-HTYT is Air France’s fifth aircraft on lease from Avolon, with the other four being F-HTYN, F-HTYM, F-HTYG, F-HTYJ all of which are Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
According to data from RadarBox, F-HTYT departed Toulouse Blagnac Airport (TLS) at 15:06 pm local time and arrived into Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) at 16:14 pm local time after a flight time of one hour and eight minutes (01h 08m) as AFR375V.
The aircraft then spent just two days parked up in Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport before starting its first commercial service to Beirut in Lebanon on November 27 as flight AF566. On November 28, the aircraft then completed its first visit to Tel Aviv in Israel as flight AF962.
All of the carrier’s Airbus A350’s have a seating configuration of 34 business class seats, 24 premium economy class seats and 266 economy class seats, which gives their Airbus A350’s a total of 324 seats each.
Photo Credits: Air France
Air France Fleet
Air France uses its Airbus A350 aircraft on routes to primarily the Middle East, India, South America and the USA alongside their fleet of 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
The airline is still due to receive a further 18 Airbus A350-900 aircraft for a total of 38 of the type once all present deliveries have been completed between now and the end of 2025.
Air France has quite a sizeable long-haul wide body fleet, with their largest fleet type at present being the Boeing 777.
The carrier operates both the Boeing 777-200ER (Extended Range) and Boeing 777-300ER with a total of 17 Boeing 777-200ER’s and 43 Boeing 777-300ER’s, with the Airbus A350’s slowly replacing their Boeing 777-200ER fleet.
Despite Air France and KLM being in a group, their fleet still remains separate for the time being with the majority of KLM’s fleet being Boeing, whereas Air France is a lot more Airbus focused.
However, in the future that will begin to shift as KLM begin taking delivery of the 100 Airbus A320neo’s and Airbus A321neo’s they have on order. They also have options for a further 60 options on-top of the firm 100.
Overall
With Air France growing their Airbus A350 fleet, it will be great to see them begin to open up more long-haul services in conjunction with their Air France-KLM Group to open up even more connections for their passengers.
Not only this but with more efficient Airbus A350’s joining their fleet, Air France-KLM Group will be set for more profitable times, as well as their recent announcement for KLM pledging to purchase 1.6 million tons of SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) from both Neste and DG Fuels back in October.
