Air France to auction seats on Airbus A380 Superjumbo’s Paris-New York inaugural flights

Air France is planning to auction 380 seats on 2 inaugural flights of the Airbus A380 Superjumbo from Paris to New York on November 20, 2009, and from New York to Paris on November 21, 2009.

Airbus A380 photo

The auction of the 380 seats will be held on Air France’s website in October 2009. The exact date will be announced later.

Considering the current financial situation of the airline industry, an auction for the seats in the inaugural flight of the Air France Airbus A380 makes perfect sense. There will be reasonably high demand, and lot of people would be tempted to sign up for the auction.

Air France will start flying the Airbus A380 Superjumbo on a regular, commercial basis on the Paris-New York route from November 23, 2009. Later, the airline plans to use the Airbus A380 on routes other than between Paris and New York, including on the Paris-Tokyo and Paris-Dubai routes.

From November 23, 2009, Air France will operate the Airbus A380 plane twice daily, except on Wednesdays, between Paris and New York. Flight AF006 will take off from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport at 1.30 p.m. and land in John F Kennedy International Airport in New York at 3:45 p.m. In the return direction, Flight AF007 will leave John F Kennedy International Airport at 7.10 p.m. and reach Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport at 8.45 a.m.

Air France, based in Paris, France, and a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group, said in a statement that the winners of the seat auction will be able to travel outbound on an Airbus A380 Superjumbo aircraft and fly back on another commercial flight.

The airline said the proceeds from the auction will go to the Air France Foundation’s three charities that work for children in distress in South Africa, India and France.

The Airbus A380 jet is a wide-body, double-deck, 4-engine airliner made by Airbus Industrie. It is the biggest passenger airliner in the world. Airbus A380 photo gallery from our archives.

Air France has ordered 12 Airbus A380 aircraft. Each plane can carry 538 passengers – 449 passengers in economy-class, 80 passengers in business-class, and 9 passengers in first-class – and travel a distance of up to 8,078 miles.

Qantas Airways, Singapore Airlines and Emirates already operate the Airbus A380 aircraft.

Meanwhile, Germany’s national airline Lufthansa will start commercial service with the Airbus A380 aircraft in the summer of 2010. At first, Lufthansa said, it will use the Superjumbo on the routes to North America and Asia which have heavy travel.

Lufthansa said it is focusing on about 20 airports around the world as destinations to operate its Airbus A380 planes.