Airbus Updates No.3598

 Air France Outlines Its Initial Airbus A220 Schedule

Air France has revealed its initial Airbus A220 schedule. The airline will launch flights to four destinations with at least two aircraft on October 31st when the IATA winter schedule beings. The airline will add further destinations to its network as deliveries progress into the winter.

Late last month, Air France took delivery of its first Airbus A220 aircraft. The airline has at least 60 of the jet on order, intending to replace its older A320 family aircraft with the new efficient plane. However, with deliveries trickling in instead of all at once, the types rollout will be gradual.

Four destinations on the first day of operation

Air France has planned four rotations with the Airbus A220 on its first day in operation, equating to eight flights in total, serving four destinations from its Charles De Gaulle home in Paris. According to schedule information from aviation data experts Cirium, the following is planned for October 31st.

Aircraft one,

• AF1734 – Paris (CDG) 09:55 – Berlin Brandenburg (BER) 11:40 – 01h45m
• AF1735 – Berlin Brandenburg (BER) 12:30 – Paris (CDG) 14:15 – 01h45m
• AF1226 – Paris (CDG) 15:40 – Venice (VCE) 17:15 – 01h35m
• AF1227 – Venice (VCE) 18:05 – Paris (CDG) 20:00 – 01h55m

Aircraft two,

• AF1012 – Paris (CDG) 12:15 – Milan Linate (LIN) 13:45 – 01h30m
• AF1013 – Milan Linate (LIN) 14:35 – Paris (CDG) 16:10 – 01h35m
• AF1100 – Paris (CDG) 17:05 – Madrid (MAD) 19:15 – 02h10m
• AF1101 – Madrid (MAD) 20:05 – Paris (CDG) 22:20 – 02h15m

Continued expansion

While just eight A220 flights are planned for October, the French flag carrier has ramped up its plans for November, with a total of 435 flights scheduled for the month, 14.5 a day on average. On November 1st, the A220 will begin flights to Barcelona, alongside the other four destinations. The airline has 16 daily flights planned by the end of the month, with Madrid seeing up to three daily rotations.

The airline will add two more routes to the mix in December. From December 6th, the A220 will additionally fly to Bologna in Italy and Lisbon in Portugal. By the end of the month, up to 26 daily flights will be operated. On January 3rd, the airline will add flights to Copenhagen and Rome.

As things stand, Air France doesn’t have any other destinations planned during the remainder of the winter schedule. Air France is yet to place Airbus’s smallest offering, which it refers to as the “new jewel in the airline’s short and medium-haul fleet”, on next summer’s schedule.

The airline hopes to have all 60 of its initial A220 order by 2025. We can expect that the French flag carrier will add many more destinations to the route network in the coming years. The jets will primarily replace the airline’s A318 and A319 planes but will also replace some A320s. Air France is reportedly interested in a stretched A220 to compete against and replace its larger narrowbodies.