Some planes become legends through sheer scarcity, and the Airbus A318 fits that description perfectly. Built as the smallest member of the A320 family, the 'Baby Bus' sold just 80 units in total, with 60 going to a mere six airline customers. Air France is now the last commercial operator anywhere, and with the type pencilled in to stop flying in March 2027, plane-spotters and enthusiasts have a short window left to tick it off their lists.
Why did the A318 flop? Physics and economics, mostly. Shrinking an aircraft twice from the A320 left it carrying an oversized wing, landing gear and fuselage, so it burned nearly as much fuel as an A319 while seating far fewer people. A botched engine launch didn't help: Airbus had pinned hopes on Pratt & Whitney's PW6000, which arrived late and missed its targets, pushing most customers towards the CFM56 or out of the programme entirely. Landing in 2003, less than two years after 9/11, sealed its fate — TWA's order for 50 examples was cancelled after American Airlines swallowed the airline. Boeing's rival 737-600 fared barely better, with just 69 built.
Today Air France flies just four A318s, mostly on short hops from Paris Charles de Gaulle to European cities and lower-demand French domestic routes. The summer 2026 route list includes Venice, Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Berlin, Warsaw and Casablanca, plus a dense domestic network serving Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux and smaller airports like Figari and Brest. The catch: aircraft swaps to the A220-300 or A319 are always possible, so anyone chasing the type should track registrations before booking.
Be realistic about the on-board experience. The A318 seats 131 passengers in Recaro slimline seats with 30 inches of pitch, six abreast — essentially identical to the rest of Air France's short-haul fleet, with business class simply a blocked middle seat. The appeal is the aircraft itself and the rarity factor, not the cabin. For a bigger aviation rarity hunt, Air Algérie still operates five Boeing 737-600s, the A318's equally obscure rival.
For aviation enthusiasts, this is a genuine end-of-an-era moment: once Air France retires the type, there will be no commercial A318 flights left anywhere in the world. For ordinary travellers, any short European flight from CDG is a lottery ticket — book a frequent route like Lyon or Amsterdam for the best odds of drawing the Baby Bus.