A380-306FND: 2020 IMPERF Airmail Label Sheet "FAREWELL FLIGHT A380 AIR FRANCE"

A page turns. Air France is writing the last lines of its history with the Airbus A380, started on November 20, 2009 with the inaugural flight Paris - New York of the super jumbo registered F-HPJA. This extraordinary aircraft quickly won over its passengers with its qualities of comfort and silence.

The French company finally decided in 2020 to withdraw all Airbus A380s from its fleet. Originally scheduled for the end of 2022, the nine planes are virtually no longer flying, as the global health crisis precipitated their retirement.

This Friday, June 26, a "farewell flight" took on 516 Air France employees - pilots, hostesses, stewards, mechanics - who had worked for years with and for the A380. The two-hour flight over France will take off from Roissy Charles de Gaulle around 3:50 pm, to its storage location, from where it will not move. This "farewell flight AF 380" is carried out by the Airbus A380 registered F-HPJH (MSN99). The aircraft was leased by the company in May 2012. Air France-KLM group CEO Benjamin Smith and Anne Rigail, CEO of Air France, will be on board.

Next-generation aircraft will replace Air France’s Super Jumbo aircraft, including the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787, which are currently being delivered.

A collection of aerophilatelic envelopes, carried on board, commemorates the "farewell flight" of June 26, 2020

It is with the kind participation of members of Air France's cabin crew, that Historiaphil editions produced in record time a tribute collection of aerophilatelic envelopes with limited editions, carried aboard the "Flight farewell AF 380 "from June 26, 2020.

Our collection of envelopes dedicated to the history of the European Super Jumbo Airbus A380 started in December 2000 with the "Signature of the industrial launch contract for the Airbus A3XX" (ref. N ° A380-1). Then from 2005 to 2007, the A380 test and certification flights (ref. N ° A380-2 / A380-84). In 2007 began the first commercial flights of Singapore Airlines (ref. N ° A380-50), then in 2009 the first flight Paris - New York of the Air France A380 (ref. N ° A380-87 / A380-90 ) and other airlines. 2019 is coming to an end with the announcement by Airbus of the end of production of the A380 (Ref. N ° A380-301 / A380-304).