Air France no longer will fly Airbus A380 aircraft, the
carrier announced on Wednesday.
The airline had already planned to phase out the aircraft
type, the world's largest passenger aircraft, by 2022, but the Covid-19 crisis
sped up the process. Air France currently owns five A380s and leases four more,
and it will replace these with Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 planes. The carrier
is the first operator of the aircraft type to fully retire it, and Airbus is
phasing out its production.
Meanwhile, Air France announced it was "progressively
increasing" its flight schedule, which had been operating between 3 per cent
and 5 per cent of its usual level. Through the end of June, the carrier is
restoring its schedule to about 15 per cent of its usual capacity, operating 75
of the 224 aircraft in its fleet. The restored network will concentrate largely
on destinations within France, French overseas departments and major European
cities.