Air France A380 set for first transatlantic flight

Agence France Presse

PARIS: An Air France A380 superjumbo, the world's largest civilian airliner, is to set off on Friday on the first Air France flight across the Atlantic bound for New York with 538 passengers aboard.

Among those will be 380 aviation buffs who bid for places in an auction arranged by Air France to benefit children-oriented humanitarian programs. The total amount raised was not disclosed.

Air France will be the first European carrier to fly the A380, the pride of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and its parent company EADS. The aircraft is already in use by Singapore Airlines, Gulf-based Emirates and Qantas of Australia.

Regular Air France commercial flights across the Atlantic are to begin on November 23. With its fleet of 12 A380s Air France will also serve Johannesburg, starting in February, and then Tokyo.

The commercial success of the A380, having suffered major production and delivery delays, has yet to be secured.

"The A380 program remains a source of concern," said EADS chief executive Louis Gallois.

Progress to date has been "slower than planned" and the programme "has still not stabilised" this year.

The manufacturer delivered its 20th A380, to Air France at the end of October, two years after the aircraft's first commercial flight.

Since October 2007, 10 A380s have been delivered to Singapore Airlines, five to Emirates and four to Qantas.

Airbus is hoping to deliver 13 superjumbos this year but has acknowledged that one or two might not be ready until early next year.

In all, 17 companies, including British Airways, Virgin and Lufthansa, have ordered a total of 202 A380s.

Air France, which acquired Dutch carrier KLM, has also been struggling with the global downturn in civil aviation. The combined company, Europe's biggest by revenue, reported a loss of 147 million euros (220 million dollars) in the second quarter of its fiscal year.

Air France-KLM had registered a profit of 27 million euros in the same July-September period last year. The Franco-Dutch airline also announced cumulative losses over six months at 573 million euros.

Air France-KLM said earlier this month that passenger numbers had dropped for a 10th month running in October, falling by 4.1 percent on a 12-month comparison, while cargo activity plunged 19.1 percent over the same period.

The figures were worse than in September, when passenger traffic dropped by a yearly 3.7 percent and cargo traffic fell 17.2 percent.

Air France has also launched a voluntary redundancy scheme to shed up to 1,700 jobs next year.