Airbus Updates No.2664

AIR FRANCE TO WITHDRAW AIRBUS A380 PERMANENTLY WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT 

AirFrance announced this afternoon (Wednesday) that it is withdrawing all of its A380’s from service permanently from today.

Having decided nealry a year ago not to spend the almost $US75m it would have taken to refurbish the aircraft interiors (they’re as delivered), the ailrine then said it would remove half of them on lease by 2022 and then the rest as appropriate, but likely by 2028.

Following the Covid19 pandemic, and the long road ahead to return to 2019 flight levels, the airline has decided to remove them immediately, making the largest aircraft in the airlines fleet its 773ER’s.

The aircraft are for the most part barely ten to eleven years old with the youngest just six.

Its an extremely sad day for aviation enthusiasts and must be deeply disheartening for those who spent millions of man hours assembling these huge aircraft, which should really have lasted at least thirty years.

Airbus Updates No.2627

Airbus A330	-243	737		A6-EYJ	Etihad Airways	ferried 21apr20 LETL-AUH after storage	ex F-WWYB
Airbus A330	-343	1103		F-HROK	Corsair International	in full cs at PVG 20apr20, VQ-reg prior delivery	ex VQ-BEL
Airbus A330	-243	1249		VP-CGI	TC Skyward Aviation Ireland	regd 17apr20, parked at NQY	ex ZS-SXV
Airbus A330	-243	1498		G-VYGK	Air Tanker	feried 16apr20 SNN-BZZ after paint into all white	ex EC-330
Airbus A340	-313	246		F-GLZO	Air France	Joon cs, ferried 24apr20 CDG-LDE, for part-out & scrap
Airbus A340	-642	622		9H-EAL	European Skybus	first in svc 26apr20 BOH-TSN with large “Thank You NHS” titles	ex G-VNAP
Airbus A380	-861	43		F-HPJC	Air France	ferried 23apr20 AUH-LDE for storage	ex F-WWAB
Airbus A380	-861	64		F-HPJF	Air France	ferried 25apr20 CDG-LETL for onward storage (+ 67 F-HPJG)	ex F-WWAU
Airbus A380	-841	92		9V-SKT	Singapore Airlines	ferried 26apr20 SIN-ASP for onward storage (+ 251 9V-SKW,+ 253 9V-SKY,+ 255 9V-SKZ)	ex F-WWSA

Airbus Updates No.729

Incident: THY A319 near Ankara on Jun 15th 2012, bomb hoax on lavatory mirror

By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Jun 28th 2012 13:07Z, last updated Thursday, Jun 28th 2012 13:07Z A THY Turkish Airlines Airbus A319-100, registration TC-JUA performing flight TK-2201 from Kahramanmaras to Istanbul (Turkey) with 120 passengers, was enroute at FL300 about 160nm southeast of Ankara (Turkey) when the word "BOMMM" was found written on a lavatory mirror with a blue pen. The captain decided to divert to Ankara as a precaution, the aircraft landed safely on Ankara's runway 21R about 25 minutes later. The aircraft taxied to a remote area, the passengers disembarked normally. The aircraft, passengers and luggage were searched with no traces of explosives found. In order to not inconvenience the innocent amongst the passengers any further the aircraft was permitted to continue to Istanbul about 2:45 hours after landing after all passengers had submitted samples of their writing. The aircraft reached Istanbul with a delay of 3:20 hours. Police is still working to determine who wrote onto the lavatory mirror. Incident: Indigo A320 at Srinagar on Jun 28th 2012, bird strike By Simon Hradecky, created Thursday, Jun 28th 2012 19:36Z, last updated Thursday, Jun 28th 2012 19:36Z An Indigo Airbus A320-200, flight 6E-448 from Srinagar to Mumbai (India) with 182 people on board, was climbing through about 1500 feet out of Srinagar when the crew suspected a bird strike into one of the engines and decided to return to Srinagar for a safe landing. A replacement aircraft reached Mumbai with a delay of 5 hours. The airline said, the crew suspected a bird strike and returned to Mumbai for a normal landing. ncident: Air France A388 near Gothenburg on Jul 1st 2012, door problems By Simon Hradecky, created Sunday, Jul 1st 2012 17:20Z, last updated Sunday, Jul 1st 2012 22:42Z An Air France Airbus A380-800, registration F-HPJG performing flight AF-276 from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Tokyo Narita (Japan), had just reached FL370 about 45nm eastnortheast of Gothenburg (Sweden) when the crew reported door problems and requested to descend to FL250. The aircraft dumped fuel over the Baltic Sea and set course to return to Paris where the aircraft landed safely on runway 27L at about 19:49L (17:49Z) about 5 hours after departure. Sweden's Civil Aviation Authority said the crew reported door problems and requested to dump fuel over the Baltic Sea. The airline reported the aircraft returned to Paris for technical checks. The flight is estimated to depart again at 23:30L (21:30Z). A replacement Airbus A380-800 registration F-HPJF departed runway 09R at 00:36L (Jul 2nd, 22:36Z Jul 1st) about 4:45 hours after landing and is estimated to reach Tokyo with a delay of 10 hours. Incident: S7 A313 at Moscow on Jul 2nd 2012, could not fully retract gear By Simon Hradecky, created Monday, Jul 2nd 2012 14:43Z, last updated Monday, Jul 2nd 2012 14:43Z A S7 Sibir Airlines Airbus A310-300, registration S7-943 from Moscow Domodedovo (Russia) to Bourgas (Bulgaria), was climbing out of Domodedovo's runway 14L when the crew stopped the climb at FL100 reporting they could not fully retract the landing gear. The aircraft entered a holding at FL080 and returned to Moscow's Domodedovo Airport for a safe landing on runway 32R about 50 minutes after departure. A replacement Airbus A319-100 registration VP-BHG reached Bourgas with a delay of 4.5 hours.