Aircraft

This week, Air France becomes the latest airline to take delivery of an Airbus A380, before launching Paris-New York services in November.

The French carrier is due to receive its first of 12 Engine Alliance GP7200-powered aircraft at a ceremony in Hamburg on 30 October.

The 538-seater will be deployed on scheduled services to New York Kennedy from 23 November, with the flight replacing two rotations currently operated by smaller widebodies.

"We will change our schedule to accommodate the A380, change two frequencies for one," says Air France-KLM's US vice-president and generational manger Christine Ourmieres.

© H. Gousse/Airbus

Dubai and Johannesburg were identified as 2010 destinations for Air France's A380s as part of a recently announced plan to reduce capacity. The current Paris-Dubai service is being cut from 14 to 12 flights a week, and will then drop to a daily service once the A380 is brought in on 18 January.

Paris-Johannesburg is also being reduced from 14 to 11 weekly flights, ahead of a further cut to daily services when the A380 joins the route in early March.

The airline's A380s are in the highest-density configuration yet delivered, seating 186 passengers on the upper deck - 80 in business class and 106 seats in economy - and 352 on the main deck (nine in first class and 343 in economy).