A380-299P1 France 2016 Collector Green, OLYMPIC FLIGHT A380 AIR FRANCE PARIS-RIO

the “Paris - Rio 2016 Olympic Flight” of the Air France Airbus A380

The company Air France operated a single flight of its Airbus A380 to Rio de Janeiro on the occasion of the 2016 Olympic Games. Airbus rarely announces that one of its customers is operating a single flight in an A380 to a new destination. However, the manufacturer welcomed this deployment of the super Jumbo. The A380 indeed remains a rare bird in Latin America.

The airline Air France, official carrier of the France Olympic team and sponsor of Club France in Rio de Janeiro, as planned, deployed this Monday, August 22, an Airbus A380 for a single commercial flight between Paris and Rio de Janeiro, in order to bring the French Olympic team. His exceptional display the day after the closing ceremony involved a total of four planes.

Of the two rotations planned today by the French national airline between its Paris-CDG base and Rio de Janeiro-Galeão airport, the first sees the usual A330-200 replaced by a super jumbo A380, configured to accommodate 9 passengers in First, 80 in Business class, 38 in Premium and 389 in Economy. It took off at 1:30 p.m. from Paris CDG to arrive at 8:15 p.m. at Rio GIG, the return flight leaving Brazil taking off at 11:45 p.m. to land the next day at 4:05 p.m.

“It was a disco, there was music, everyone took out the speakers, we danced with the crew. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a flight where almost everyone was standing.” declared Teddy Riner, flag bearer of the French Olympic delegation, on the tarmac of Paris-Charles de Gaulle as he got off the plane.

Personalized Franco-Brazilian postage stamps, seals and special covers have been specially designed by the Historiaphil graphic studio to commemorate the “Olympic Flight Paris-Rio 2016” and the “40 years of the first supersonic commercial flight of Concorde” carried out in 1976 on this same line. A limited edition of 240 aerophilatelic documents was transported on board, with the kind participation of the Air France cabin crew who operated the “Olympic Flight”.