Dresden, Germany - French flag carrier Air France has said goodbye to the first Airbus A380.
The Air France superjumbo registered F-HPJB no longer wears the airline's blue and red colors. On Dec 2, it flew to Dresden in Germany for maintenance with its all-white livery.
After the maintenance, the superjumbo will be returned to the lessor. The aircraft made its last commercial flight with the French carrier's colors on New Year's eve between Shanghai and Paris. The F-HPJB joined the Air France fleet in 2010.
Air France will retire its entire Airbus A380 fleet until the end of 2022. CEO Ben Smith says that the aircraft is an operational nightmare and he doesn't want to invest hundreds of millions to renew the outdated cabins of the A380s in his airline's fleet.
Air France is planning to replace all of its A380s with the Airbus's newer generation and more efficient widebody jet A350-900.
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Air France Airbus A380 (F-HPJB) - Dresden Airport
The Air France-KLM Group airline currently has three A350-900 and nine A380-800 in its fleet. The French operator will take delivery of 35 A350-900 more over time.
It is not yet known what will happen to the F-HPJB. The German lessor Dr. Peters Group may try to find a new customer for the plane. However, there is no demand Airbus's superjumbos in the second-hand market, therefore, dismantling it and selling its parts to the A380 operators as spare parts is the more realistic option.
This is what happened to two Airbus A380 of Dr. Peters Group, which were retired by Singapore Airlines last year. The planes were sent to Tarbes, France for disassembly.