A330 for French president

[ehusmann]

I found this link on Airliners.net with the explanation that French president Sakozy will obtain an Airbus A330-200 for VIP duties. It will come from Air Caraibes and will be the new French ´Air Force One´. My French is not good enough to read the article, if anyone can and gets other details from the article, please let us know

Erwin

[Richard from Rotterdam]

As far as I can figure it out from this blog, it is a rumour that this A330 will be bought and outfitted as a pure long haul VIP-plane.

Apparently the other long haul planes (A310 and A340) are not specifically outfitted to fly the president.

The blog also states that the Falcon 50s are to be replaced by Falcon 2000s and the Falcon 900s to be replaced by the Falcon 7X.

[SquAdmin]

A link to this Reuters article was posted on Alert5.com a couple of days ago:

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndu ... 2720080611" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ErikFB]

Well, translated it very fast. All above written is right. The French Minister of Defence had announced that there are plans to buy this second hand bird from Air Caraibes ( which already fly between the Caraibes and Paris) due to the fact that the A319 has too less possibilities to fly long distance streches. The A332 has that possibilty and if plans go well it will be repainted and refurbished ( inside of course) to replace the A319.

Further at the article the history of AC is told including the planes they now have and that they are a leased ( so also the second A332 en the A333)

Grtz,
Erik

[ErikFB]

Well, translated it very fast. All above written is right. The French Minister of Defence had announced that there are plans to buy this second hand bird from Air Caraibes ( which already fly between the Caraibes and Paris) due to the fact that the A319 has too less possibilities to fly long distance streches. The A332 has that possibilty and if plans go well it will be repainted and refurbished ( inside of course) to replace the A319.

Further at the article the history of AC is told including the planes they now have and that they are a leased ( so also the second A332 en the A333)

Grtz,
Erik

[ErikFB]

By the way: the second part of the article give some reactions and they have the same conclusion of buying a plane and use it for everything ( like the Dutch Government does with the Gulfstream and the KBX).

Erik

[Tintin]

The Esterel aircraft are already used by the President for his different trips, the A-340s for long range ones; but he needs his personal Air Force One like the American president...
The problem is that our military transport fleet is getting worse and worse with (very) ageing Transall, fighters spare parts for Mirage 2000 are taken on other aircraft "cannibalized", etc....

All this seems not to be important, the defence budget will be reduced, as military forces, airbases closed, etc....but he will get his "toy".

Thx Mr President !!!

[Tintin]

Yesterday, the confirmation for the French "Air Force One" has been given by the MoD.
The A-330 will be retrofited at Merignac in the VIP configuration by Sogerma Services.

Two Falcon 7X have also been ordered to renew the governmental fleet.


Regards,

[Tintin]

Hi all,

Since May 09, "Sarko-One" is at Merignac for retrofit and VIP configuration (presidential bedroom, medical center, etc...)
The A-330 should be operational in Oct 2010.





About the two Falcon-7X also ordered, the first one has been delivered on the 3rd of July.


Regards,

[Trueno]

The French navy forum (http://www.ffaa.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) reports that the Falcon 50's that are replaced will go to the French Navy? Any confirmation?

Au revoir,

Trueno