bonjour tous- I had something better, but can't find it. This is a discussion group involving Air France. I had a better one to post and can't find, sorry/desole.

If you want to join the group, just send Alain Mengus an e-mail. They discuss Air France, planes, current events, and all.
A bientot. I find this to be very interesting.

What Airplane will Air France use now to Beirut? I
beleive some of Air France flgihts to Beirut are
operated by MEA. I am not sure if it is a code share
agreement, or if Air France owns a percentage of MEA.
Last I heard was that Air France owned about 20% of
MEA. I am not sure if that is accurate though. The
A330 is a little toO big for Beirut isn't it? I think
in the summer they fly A340s and 747s due to a heavier
traffic, but what will they use after the summer?

--- Alain Mengus <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Air France operated its last flight with an Airbus
> A310 on Sunday 10 March
> 2002, on the Beirut (BEY)-Paris (CDG) route. This
> last flight was operated
> with Jean-Claude Mangou (Captain), Erwan Boivant
> (First Officer), Robert
> Nadjar (Cabin crew chief) and eight other flight
> attendants.
>
> Technically, the A310 was introducing a new
> generation of airplanes at Air
> France, notably with its glass cockpit, its Flight
> Management System (FMS)
> displays and two performant automatic pilots.
>
> The aircraft was intially integrated to the fleet
> with short and
> medium-range routes with a relatively important
> traffic in mind. Thus, the
> first revenue flight of the aircraft on the
> airline's network was performed
> on 12 May 1984 to Milan (LIN). But the progressive
> withdrawal of the A300s
> in the 1990s (until 1997) led the A310-200s to fly
> on longer and longer
> routes, such as the United Arab Emirates (DXB, AUH),
> Saudi Arabia (JED, RUH)
> or Djibouti (JIB).
>
> The purchase of A310-300s with an longer range was a
> step in the type's life
> at Air France, since the -300s could operate on
> longer ETOPS routes to the
> US East coast. The first transatlantic flight on
> Lyon (LYS)-New York (JFK)
> on 09 November 1989 was the first of multiple
> transatlantic links between
> the French "villes de Province" (regional cities)
> and JFK. The A310s also
> started to operate on Central African routes after
> the merger with UTA in
> 1991.
>
> The network on which the A310s have operated was
> regularly changing, driven
> by commercial and capacity development strategies.
> But their middle size
> enabled Air France to offer daily flights to African
> cities and even to the
> US North-East coast.
>
> As the type was getting old, less reliable and no
> longer adapted to the
> commercial standards, Air France ordered fourteen
> A330-200s to replace the
> ten remaining A310s -- and its five 767-300ERs. The
> progressive retirement
> of the A310s was to be done as the A330s would be
> delivered, but the
> economic downturn in the year 2001 and the sharp
> traffic drop after 11
> September 2001 led Air France to wirthdraw all -200s
> effective October 2001
> and to keep only a few -300s.
>
> The last two A310s in operation were F-GEMO and MQ.
>
>
> A few figures...
> ========================================
> 11 airplanes (seven A310-200s and four A310-300s)
> 413,000 flight hours
> 147,000 cycles
>
> Type Registration Delivery Withdrawal
> ========================================
> -200 F-GEMA 1984 2001
> -200 F-GEMB 1984 2001
> -200 F-GEMC 1985 2002
> -200 F-GEMD 1985 2002
> -200 F-GEME 1985 2002
> -200 F-GEMF 1986 1994
> -200 F-GEMG 1988 2001
> -300 F-GEMN 1989 2002
> -300 F-GEMO 1989 2002
> -300 F-GEMP 1990 2002
> -300 F-GEMQ 1991 2002
>
>
> Best regards,
> Alain Mengus
>
>
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------------------
Michael
AA PLT,1 MLN Miles+
HH GLD, SCI GLD, MM SIL
LE PRESIDENT ETERNEL DE CAMAIR-CAMEROUN AIRLINES