Air France to Auction 760 Seats on Inaugural Airbus A380 Flights

Air France has decided to auction 380 seats on each of its two inaugural flights on the Airbus A380, operating from Paris to New York on 20 November and from New York to Paris on 21 November 2009.

This exclusive auction sale will take place on the internet in October 2009 and will be available to all markets (France, United States and other countries).

The winners will travel on the A380 outbound inaugural flight to New York and return on a commercial flight. Departures will only take place from Paris and New York.

Air France has ordered 12 Airbus A380s, four of which will go into service during winter 2009 and spring 2010.

The Air France A380 is fitted with three cabins classes: 80 seats in Business and 106 seats in Voyageur (Economy) on the upper deck and 9 seats in Première (First) and 343 in Voyageur (Economy) on the main deck.

Powered by four GP7200 engines, specially designed by Engine Alliance (50/50 Joint Venture between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney), the Air France Airbus A380 can carry its 538 passengers over a maximum distance of 13,000 kms. 

The profits of the special auction will be used to fund three humanitarian projects supported by the Air France Foundation for children in distress:

• in France (Marseille) “Association Arts et Développement”: street art workshops in city neighbourhoods;

• in South Africa (Johannesburg / Soweto, Alexandra and Witbank): “Fançois-Xavier Bagnoud Association”, an after-school program dedicated to orphans affected by AIDS;

• and India (New Delhi): “Association Plan France”: project aimed at improving living conditions for child workers.

Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, Chief Executive Officer of Air France, said, “Since1992, the Air France Foundation has supported over 500 projects in 67 countries in order to enable sick and disabled children, as well as those in great distress, to have access to education, leisure activities and culture. We believe it is important that the first Air France Airbus A380 flight should not simply symbolize a technological achievement at the service of our customers, but also an operation in support of those in distress.”

The first commercial A380 Paris-New York flights will start operating on 23 November 2009.

As the first European airline to provide its customers with the comfort of the Airbus A380, Air France will also be the first carrier to offer transatlantic travel between Europe and the U.S.A. on the new very wide-bodied aircraft.

The Air France A380 will then also be used on the Paris - Dubai, Paris - Johannesburg and Paris –Tokyo routes.

The Air France A380 will leave from Terminal 2E of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport at 1:30pm (local time) and arrive in New York JFK at 3:45pm (local time).

The return flight will leave Terminal 1 in New York JFK Airport at 7:10pm, arriving in Paris the next day at 8:35am.

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