According to a report by Journal de l’Aviation, the French flag carrier Air France
has begun retiring its Airbus A330-200 fleet. This summer, the airline operated 15 examples to several destinations. Today, only 11 remain, with one more undergoing retirement preparations. The aircraft are primarily used for flights to Africa, an important axis of the carrier’s overall operation that also takes advantage of transatlantic connections, for instance.

Retirements

Five planes have been withdrawn from service, destined for retirement. These include the below, with additional details thanks to ch-aviation and Flightradar24 data. The planes are stored at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport (LDE), except one which is currently at Toulouse Airport (TLS) and will join the others shortly.

Registration

Age (years, rounded)

Current location

Last commercial flight

F-GZCH

22

Stored at LDE

Libreville-Paris (AF977) on August 25

F-GZCC

23

Stored at LDE

Luanda-Pointe Noire-Paris (AF929) on September 21

F-GZCL

22

Stored at LDE

Paris-N’Djamena (AF878) on May 31

F-GZCF

22

Stored at LDE

Lome-Paris (AF863) on September 29

F-GZCE

23

Stored at TLS

N’Djamena-Abuja-Paris (AF820) on September 29

Air France A330 taxiing

Most of these planes were withdrawn from services at the end of August and were sent to Tarbes shortly after to be taken care of by Tarmac Aerosave, a recycling and aircraft maintenance company.

It is worth noting that one of the planes, namely F-GZCL, was withdrawn from service much earlier than the others. Its final route was from Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport
(CDG) to N’Djamena International Airport (NDJ) at the end of May. This specific plane was involved in an incident during which strong wind pushed the plane, subsequently meaning the A330 collided with a service vehicle on the ground. The French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) said the following in its preliminary report:

A strong wind from a cumulonimbus caused the plane to pivot on the main gear, causing the nose gear to move more than a meter to the right. This incident also involved a collision with the high loader assigned to loading containers.

The aircraft has been on the ground in Chad since the incident. It was flown to LDE on September 28 directly from NDJ, for a total flight time of 6 hours and 28 minutes.

Where do they fly?

air france a330-200 in the air

Photo: eka.viation | Shutterstock

According to Cirium data, the Airbus A330 fleet is scheduled to operate almost exclusively to Africa for this month from the carrier’s CDG hub. This includes to destinations such as Bangui (BGF), Douala (DLA), Luanda International Airport (LAD), and Lomé (LFW), among others. There are a select few destinations in the Air France network outside of the African continent that will see the A330s, listed below.

  • Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY): Six weekly flights are scheduled, although services have been suspended until October 8 due to the Middle East situation.
  • Sint Maarten Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM): flights are offered four times a week with the A330
  • Bengaluru Kempegowda International Airport (BLR): a one-off A330 service is scheduled for Friday October 18, taking over from the A350.

The use of A330s on flights to Africa is not new. As we reported in September 2022, the Africa-focus for the type was already present. The aircraft are better placed for thinner routes due to their reduced capacity as compared with the remainder of the Air France widebody fleet which consists of three other types, including the:

  • Boeing 787
  • Airbus A350
  • Boeing 777
An Air France Airbus A350-900.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying

The A350s are eventually going to replace the A330s entirely. 35 of the 41 that are destined exclusively for Air France have already been delivered. The Air France-KLM
group had also placed an order last year for 50 additional A350s, to be split between the Dutch and French flag carrier.

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