Air France

Is Air France safe?

Yes, with one large asterisk. Air France has had a single fatal accident in the last 20 years, but it was one of the most studied crashes in aviation history, and French investigators have since raised concerns about how strictly its pilots follow procedures. We score it 77, below KLM, Lufthansa and British Airways.

On a typical Air France flight the risk is very low. The airline flies under the EASA system, it is IOSA-registeredIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary, and its fleet is being renewed faster than most European rivals'. The lower score reflects the record and the findings, not the experience on board.

What happened to AF447?

On 1 June 2009, AF447, an Airbus A330 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, flew into a zone of ice crystals at night over the Atlantic. The airspeed probes iced up, the autopilot disconnected, and the crew pulled the aircraft into a stall that lasted more than three minutes until it hit the sea. All 228 people on board died. The French investigation bureau, the BEA, published its final report in 2012. It found that the crew misread the situation after a brief loss of speed data, and it led to new training in high-altitude stall recovery across the industry.

The legal case is still open. A Paris court acquitted Air France and Airbus in April 2023. On 21 May 2026, the Paris Court of Appeal reversed that and convicted both companies of corporate manslaughter, fining each the maximum €225,000, according to AAP. Prosecutors argued that both had failed on training and on following up earlier incidents with the probes. Lawyers expect appeals to the Court of Cassation, France's highest court.

The other big loss of the period ended without deaths. On 2 August 2005, AF358, an Airbus A340, landed long in a thunderstorm at Toronto, ran off the end of the runway into a ravine and burned. All 309 people on board escaped.

Do Air France pilots follow procedures?

This is the question that costs Air France the most points, and the BEA asked it first. In an August 2022 report on an A330 that lost more than five tonnes of fuel on a flight from Brazzaville in December 2020, the BEA noted that the crew had kept the engine on the leaking side running, against the fuel-leak procedure. It went further: recent BEA investigations of Air France occurrences had shown procedures being adapted or deliberately broken, and the French oversight authority told the BEA its own flight checks had found similar problems. The BEA's recommendation asked Air France to enforce procedures more strictly, track individual deviations through flight data, and give pilots tools to replay their flights. Air France said it was revising its flight analysis and starting a line-operations safety audit.

The best-known example came months earlier. On 5 April 2022, AF011, a Boeing 777 from New York, went around in cloud at Paris Charles de Gaulle. The co-pilot pulled up while the captain pushed down; for 53 seconds both were on the controls, and for 12 seconds the two control columns came apart under the opposing forces. The crew landed safely on a second approach. The BEA's final report, published in January 2024, found nothing wrong with the aircraft.

Other recent entries in the record are less serious: an A380 engine came apart over Greenland in September 2017 (the crew diverted safely to Goose Bay), an A350 hit its tail during a go-around at Toronto in January 2024, and turbulence on approach to Ajaccio injured two passengers and three crew in August 2025.

How old are Air France's planes?

Younger than they were. Air France-KLM's operational fleet averaged 11.5 years at the end of 2025, and 32% of the group's aircraft were new-generation types by September 2025, up from 27% at the end of 2024. The group has firm orders for A220s, A320neo-family jets and A350s. On Air France long-haul flights, the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 are the newest; the 777s and A330s are older. Short flights from Paris increasingly use the A220.

Who flies your Air France flight?

Several companies fly under AF numbers. HOP!, the regional subsidiary, flies Embraer jets on French domestic and European routes under its own certificate; its 39 aircraft averaged 14 years at the end of 2025. Transavia France is the group's low-cost airline and sells its own tickets. Codeshare flights may be operated by KLM, Delta or others. The booking page names the operator for each leg.

Tips for flying Air France

• Check the aircraft. The A350, 787 and A220 are the newest types in the fleet.
• Wear your seat belt on long flights over Africa and the Atlantic. The storm belt near the equator, where AF447 was lost, brings convective turbulence on many of these routes.
• Expect a careful operation at Charles de Gaulle, which has some of the best runway and approach equipment in Europe, but a sprawling taxiway system where two Air France aircraft have been hit by other jets since 2018.

How we scored it

The accident record (72) and serious incidents (70) are the weak factors: AF447 is inside our 20-year window, and the BEA's 2022 findings on procedural discipline are unusual for a major European airline. Oversight (88), a renewing fleet (76) and a mostly well-equipped network (82) keep Air France in the high 70s.