Air France-KLM has made up its mind: the airline group intends to order fifty Airbus A350 plus forty options for the French and Dutch airlines. The aircraft are mainly for the replacement of older-generation widebodies. How many aircraft each carrier will get depends on “future market dynamics and regulatory conditions.” That clearly indicates that the fleet size will depend on the available capacity for KLM at Amsterdam Schiphol.
Air France-KLM will order both the A350-900 and the larger A350-1000. The former has been in use with Air France since September 2019. Since then, 22 have been delivered out of 41 on order. Air France also has four A350F full freighters on order, with another four ordered by KLM’s sister cargo airline Martinair.
Active as a journalist since 1987, with a background in newspapers, magazines, and a regional news station, Richard has been covering commercial aviation on a freelance basis since late 2016.
Richard is contributing to AirInsight since December 2018. He also writes for Airliner World, Aviation News, Piloot & Vliegtuig, and Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine. Twitter: @rschuur_aero.