Air France to auction seats for charity on Airbus A380 Paris-New York inaugural flights

Air France is planning to auction 380 out of the 538 seats for charity on each of its two inaugural Paris-New York flights on the double-deck Airbus A380 Superjumbo aircraft. One flight will be from Paris to New York on November 20, 2009, and the other from New York to Paris on November 21, 2009.

According to a press release from Air France, a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group, the charity auction sale will take place on the internet in October 2009 and will be available to all markets – France, the United States and many other countries.

The terms the charity auction sale will be announced later, Air France said.

The winners of the auction sale will be able to travel on the outbound inaugural flight of the Airbus A380 Superjumbo plane to New York and return on a commercial flight. Departures will be only from New York and Paris.

The profits of the auction sale will go to fund three humanitarian projects supported by the Air France Foundation for children in distress and promoted by associations in France, India and South Africa.

The proceeds, according to Air France, will go to three designated charities – one street-art workshop in Marseille in France; one project to fight child labour in India; and one after-school programme for AIDS-infected orphans in South Africa.

Air France said it will launch the first commercial service of its Airbus A380 Superjumbo between Paris and New York on November 23, 2009. Bookings for the flights are currently open.

In the press release, Air France said it will be the first airline based in Europe to use the Airbus A380 Superjumbo – the biggest passenger airline in the world – on inter-continental flights on a regular, scheduled, commercial basis.

Air France’s daily flights using the Airbus A380 will take off from Terminal 2E at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport at 1.30 p.m. local time and land in New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport at 3.45 p.m.

In the return direction, the flight is scheduled to leave New York at 7.10 p.m. and reach Paris at 8.35 a.m. At both airports, Air France said it will make use the facility to board the Airbus A380 Superjumbo on the upper deck and on the main deck.

Air France will begin the Paris-New York service with 2 Airbus A380 planes. Later, the strength of the Airbus A380 fleet will be increased to 4 planes by the spring of 2010, the airline said.

In the coming months, Air France will operate the Airbus A380 plane on the Paris-Dubai, Paris-Tokyo, and Paris-Johannesburg routes.