Air France Retires Its Last 747 After 40 Years
- `Queen of Skies' bows out with three-hour flight around France
- Dutch carrier's younger aircraft could survive until 2020
An Air France Boeing 747.
Photographer: Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Air France marked the exit of the last of 68 Boeing Co. 747s that have graced its fleet over 40 years with a valedictory tour spanning Normandy to Mont Blanc and the Mediterranean -- while saying that the aviation icon could survive until 2020 at Dutch arm KLM.
Replaced at the French carrier by smaller Boeing 777s and a handful of Airbus Group SE A380s, the jet still numbers more than 20 examples at KLM, where the priority has been to retire Boeing MD-11s, Alexandre De Juniac, president of parent Air France-KLM Group, said in an interview Thursday.