Air France has pulled off something airlines almost never do: a full-length documentary celebrating a first class cabin. Released to mark 70 years of La Premiere — and hot on the heels of Skytrax naming it the world's best first class at the 2026 World Airline Awards — the 35-minute film traces how the product has evolved since the 1950s.
The format is a series of conversations led by Ben Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, who chats with the people behind the experience: cabin crew, the dedicated ground personal assistants who shepherd La Premiere passengers through the airport, chef Alain Ducasse, and Isabelle d'Ornano, co-founder of Sisley, the skincare brand featured onboard. Everything is in French, but there's a fully dubbed English version on YouTube — worth clicking through to YouTube directly, since the embedded player apparently doesn't always carry the dubbing.
The standout segment for many will be a rare look inside the Musée Air France, the airline's corporate archive and documentation centre. It's closed to the public and normally reserved for historians and researchers, so seeing decades-old cabin layouts, uniforms and amenity kits on screen is a genuine treat for anyone curious about how air travel used to look.
Smith himself is a big part of the appeal. He comes across as a genuine aviation obsessive rather than a suits-only executive — he recalls seat pitch figures from old aircraft, names the Boeing 747 as his favourite plane, and admits his first car wore a "747" licence plate and his personal email address contains the same number. The film's argument, implicitly, is that this kind of passion filters down: an airline chief who actually cares about cabins and service tends to inspire employees in a way a finance-first hire rarely does.
It's also not a one-off. Earlier this year Air France released a similar video marking the 50th anniversary of Concorde, suggesting the airline has settled into a habit of producing archive-rich films that are genuinely watchable rather than corporate fluff.
Why should a traveller care? Partly for the armchair pleasure — this is well-made nostalgia about one of flying's great luxuries — and partly as practical inspiration. If you've ever fancied experiencing La Premiere yourself, the film doubles as an inside look at what the product actually involves, from the dedicated ground staff to the Ducasse dining and Sisley amenities. And if you're connecting through Paris, it's a reminder that the airline's La Premiere lounge is widely considered the finest first class lounge anywhere. Even if a first class fare is out of reach, it's a rare behind-the-curtain look at what goes into a top-tier premium product.
