One of two widebody types whose days at Air France are numbered, along with the A330-200, the 777-200ER is still seeing quite a bit of use these days, featuring on several U.S. routes from the airline’s main hub at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Destinations the type serves this year include Seattle, Minneapolis, Dakar, Toronto, Luanda, Yaoundé, Cayenne, and Atlanta. As I’m trying to get trip reports in with the 777-200ER before it leaves the Air France fleet, it was a natural choice for me to bridge Paris and Atlanta with it. While these birds are definitely getting up there in years, they’re still very capable aircraft, and it’s always fun to fly off the beaten path with them. While Atlanta isn’t exactly isolated or highly overlooked, the transatlantic market from there is dominated, predictably enough, by Delta Air Lines, which flies to the French capital three times per day with the A350-900 and A330-300. Air France serves the route twice per day with its A350-900s and 777-300ERs, but occasionally, like today, the 777-200ER will feature. Hope y’all enjoy this, because I’ve got serious plans for the AF 777-200ER!
Server: Solo
Airline: Air France
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Origin: Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, Roissy-en-France, France (CDG)
Destination: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia (ATL)
Flight Number: AF32
Route: LFPG-KATL
Seat: 37L (Economy)
Time En Route: 8 Hours 49 Minutes
Sitting in the boarding area at Gate L39. We were originally supposed to be flying aboard an A350-900, the aircraft most commonly seen on this route, but we got an equipment change to a 777-200ER a few hours ago. While not the most modern or opulent aircraft in Air France’s fleet, the 777-200ER still gets the work done, as it were, so we’re not bummed about the switch today. Additionally, this is going to be our first time flying in economy on an Air France Triple Seven, which makes it a bit suspenseful for us.
Taxiing over a railway on the long journey from the L Gates to the north side of CDG. Due to the extended taxi time, we’re getting a lot of time to study our seat before we get airborne. The seats in our aircraft are fairly decent, being well-padded and not too heavily worn, although the recline could be better and the legroom is tighter than we’d have liked. However, we do have in-seat power and the seat itself come with an articulating seat pan to give the impression of greater pitch, which somewhat mitigates the legroom issue.
Taking off from Runway 09R. As the gear comes up, we can see out the window just how big Charles de Gaulle Airport actually is. There’s a line of aircraft coming to depart from 09R behind us; mostly Air France, by the looks of it, but there’s some other SkyTeam metal there as well. Off we go on our roughly eight and a half-hour journey to Atlanta!
Climbing to our cruising altitude over rural France. From the air, we can see the sharp contrast in the terrain where the near-unbroken farmland gives way to dense patches of forest. We’ve got a movie from Air France’s extensive IFE collection started up and are settling in for the flight ahead under the provided blanket, while the pillow provided to us is being used by us as an armrest. Even though it’s not an overnight flight, AF was still considerate enough to give us these creature comforts in case we should happen to take a nap, which is very much appreciated by us.
Cruising at 36,000 feet over the North Atlantic a few hours into our flight. We’ve just been served an appetizing-looking pasta dish for lunch and we’re starting to dig in. One of Air France’s hallmarks has been fine in-flight dining, which has consistently held true for our flights with them in business class, and we’re glad to see that the good food extends back to economy as well. It’s not the Michelin-star grade food of business class and up on Air France’s 777s, but it’s definitely among the best, if not outright the best food we’ve had in economy on a transatlantic flight.
Going through some bumpy air over upstate New York, south of Syracuse. We grabbed a brief power nap over northern Canada, before waking up to order from the complimentary drink service. Air France’s cabin service is also a point of pride for the carrier and, like the dining, it appears to extend across all cabins. Whereas with a lot of other carriers flying between the U.S. and Europe, the service drops off outside of business class to an extent, Air France has been treating us as if we had booked business class for this journey, instead of being all the way back in economy.
In a gradual descent over East Tennessee, north of Newport, the seat of Cocke County, and east of Sevierville, the home of Tennessee’s most famous resident. It’s a lovely October afternoon in the skies over the Volunteer State, skies that our captain says should be equally lovely the rest of the way to Atlanta. It’s weird, in a way, flying only a couple hundred miles east of our hometown, with our time flying through Tennessee being the closest we’ll get. Anyway, we’re stoked to see what there’ll be at ATL today, with the airport’s status as a major domestic and international hub all but guaranteeing that we’ll see some interesting stuff.
Landing at Hartsfield-Jackson on Runway 27L. In the background, the absolutely mammoth ATL ATC tower is about to disappear from view as we roll down the runway. Almost right after we touched down, we got to see an interesting aircraft, specifically N845MH, Delta Air Lines’s 767-400ER painted in “Breast Cancer Awareness” colors, getting towed to the F Gates prior to going to London tonight as DL32. Once we’re clear of the runway, we’ll hopefully get to see the traffic coming in behind us, as well as whatever’s on the cargo ramp this afternoon.
Taxiing between Runways 09L/27R and 09R/27L on our way to the International Terminal. Our hopes for an exciting cargo ramp were not in vain, as we have two 747-8Fs of Cargolux and Cathay Cargo, specifically the “80 Years” livery, B-LJE and two 777Fs of EVA Air Cargo and Qatar Airways Cargo. It’s definitely a good afternoon for planespotting at ATL. As we near our gate, we’re finishing packing our stuff up so we can deplane in quick fashion.
Looking back at our aircraft at Gate F3. While Air France’s 777-200ERs are a bit long in the tooth, they’re by no means being quietly ushered offstage. Air France seems determined to get as much as they can out of the jets. That means doing the best they can with the aircraft’s aging cabins, providing great foot and great service, and above all making it quintessentially Air France. We’re certainly glad to have been aboard it this time and would like to be back on it soon! However, we’ve got a one-day layover in the Peach State, so it’s off to the Renaissance Concourse Atlanta Airport Hotel at the north side of the airport for an evening of planespotting and a nice, relaxing night.