Air France trims A318 fleet as type fades from commercial service

Air France has sold an Airbus A318 that it had withdrawn from service in November, continuing a gradual drawdown of the smallest member of the A320 family as the type steadily disappears from commercial airline operations.

The French carrier still flies four A318s and has for years been the only airline using the model on scheduled passenger services. With just 80 aircraft built worldwide, the A318 never achieved the scale of its A319 and A320 siblings and has largely moved into niche roles outside mainstream airline fleets.

Airbus launched the A318 in the early 2000s to bridge the gap between large regional jets and single-aisle aircraft. While it shared cockpit and systems commonality with the rest of the A320 family, the economics proved difficult: the aircraft retained much of the structure and complexity of larger variants while offering fewer seats and only limited fuel burn savings.

As airlines shifted toward larger narrowbodies and purpose-built 100–130 seat aircraft, demand for the A318 remained limited. Air France gradually concentrated the remaining examples in specific short-haul missions while expanding the use of newer types in its lower-capacity segment, including the Airbus A220-300.

Outside Air France, the aircraft survives mainly in non-airline roles. Seventeen A318s remain active outside airline service, most of them in Airbus Corporate Jet configuration, often listed as the A318 Elite, and operate for governments, private owners and business aviation providers.

The Planespotters database, for example, shows active A318 Elite aircraft with operators ranging from Saudi Royal Flight and the Turkish government to business aviation firms in Europe and Asia.

The shift leaves the A318 increasingly confined to VIP and special-mission use. Even with Air France still operating four aircraft, the type’s presence in scheduled commercial service continues to shrink, reinforcing its status as a rare outlier within the otherwise highly successful A320 family.

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