From Aviation HQ@2:292/854 to All on Fri Nov 23 19:46:42 2018
Air France wants to cut its Airbus A380 fleet. The French newspaper Les Echos writes that CEO Ben Smith has made the decision about this. He has chosen to stick to only five of these super jumbo's. The French currently have ten A380s in use.
Five of them have been leased. The lease contract for two aircraft expires at the end of 2019. Those super jumbo's then go back to Airbus. Also the other leased A380s will be retired in due course. The five own aircraft will be modernized from the autumn of 2020.
Earlier, Air France had already reduced its order at Airbus for the super jumbo's from twelve to ten. The airline prefers the smaller A350 from Airbus and the Boeing 777-300ER from Boeing, which are cheaper and more economical to use.
The fact that Air France is holding on to five super jumbo's for the time being, according to the newspaper, also has to do with the fact that there are no parties to take over the aircraft. For some of the phased-out A380s from Singapore Airlines, no new owner could be found recently.