Air France recently took delivery of its first A380 ahead of its launch on the daily Paris Charles de Gaulle/New York-JFK route on November 23.

The airline last week confirmed that it intends to deploy the A380 on the Paris/Johannesburg route, most likely at the beginning of 2010 but no firm date has been set. The A380 will also be used on the carrier's Paris/Dubai and Paris/Tokyo routes in the coming months.

Ralf Karsenbarg, Air France-KLM Commercial Director for Southern Africa and Angola, said South Africa had been chosen as one of the first routes for the A380 because Air France is "optimistic about developments in South Africa, not only because of the 2010 World Cup but also because it is an attractive destination and much effort is being exerted to promote it both internally and externally".

At the same time, Air France has announced that it will be auctioning off 380 seats on each of its two inaugural flights on the A380; operating from Paris to New York on November 20 and from New York to Paris on November 21.

The auction will take place online (details to be announced at a later date) and will be open to passengers in all markets, including South Africa.

All funds raised by the auction will be used to fund three children's projects supported by the Air France Foundation. These include: the François-Xavier Bagnoud Association, an after-school programme for AIDS orphans in South Africa; a street art facilitation project in France; and a project aimed at improving living conditions for child workers in India.

Air France is the first European carrier to take delivery of an A380 and will be the first to offer transatlantic flights between Europe and North America on the wide-bodied aircraft. The A380 has been configured into three cabin classes to carry a total of 538 passengers.

The airline has 12 A380s on order, four of which will start operating by mid-2010.