Widebody operated flights in Europe in 2018

After a first article about 5th Freedom Flights in and out of Europe, let’s look at short haul flights inside Europe with widebody airplanes in 2018. Flying on large planes comes with quite a few advantages, and we will look into these as well as a complete list with types, time tables and a map. There has been multiple contributions to the 5th freedom flights article in the comments, which were all appreciated. With your contribution we can make this new list as exhaustive and up to date as possible as well!

NEWS : Iberia will start flying its A350 on the MAD-LHR route on 20th July, only until end of August. Most seats seem to be still available (as of 30 march).

 

Advantages of flying on large planes

A large portion offlying Europe is done on short haul, single aisle planes. Most airlines fly planes from the A320 and B737 family, the newer C-Series and Superjets, as well as smaller regional jet and propeller planes.

Getting a widebody on these sub-3 hour sectors is always a welcome change. Benefits include wider seats and greater pitch, inflight entertainment systems, and just, well… the feeling! Unfortunately, these flights are few aand sometimes far between, and often subject to type changes and seasonality, such as the Air France 777 flights to southern France, or the Swiss 777-300ER on the Geneva-Zurich morning route.

 

Crew familiarization flights

It is always good to be on the lookout, as airlines recieving new types in their fleets almost always fly either domestic or intra-european flights to familiarize the crews with the new equipment. I’ve had the chance to get on an Air France A380 from Paris to London back in 2010 with my friend Keishi, who also happened to be on the first 787-9 Air France sightseeing flight around France last year.

At the time of writing (march 2018), we can look forward to Iberia’s A350-900s, coming in june of this year. Air France, Scandinavian, will be getting their A350-900s next year. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic ordered the longer A350-1000s, which will be coming next year as well. KLM will only be getting their A350-900s in 2020.

 

Map of Widebody flights in Europe

5th freedom widebody flights

In my other article about 5th freedom flights in Europe, I started to touch upon the subject a bit. Here’s a map from the article, updated with types:

Widebody 5th freedom flights in europe in april 2018

BA’s 767-300s on european short and medium haul

The largest widebody operator on european flights is British Airways and their 7-strong fleet of 767-300s. For easier readability, here’s a separate map of the BA flights.

Widebody flights operated by British airways (updated april 2018)The Moscow flights are mostly flown during spring and summer, using a 787 from 2 april to 27 october, and a 777 after that.

The Heathrow – Madrid flights have a codeshare with Iberia, who fly A333/343/346s on the route.

 

Other widebody flights across Europe

Here’s a map of the other flights that I could find so far. Note that not all the flights are currently flown, so please refer to the table below to see the frequency and start/finish dates.

Widebody flights in europe in 2018 (updated april 2018)For the flights out of Reykjavik on the 767, all of them are flow by Icelandair except the Paris one which is Wow.

 

Detailed table of widebody flights in Europe

The following table aims at giving more details about each flight. The departure city is meant as the starting point of the return flight (which matters for, say, Finnair LHR-HEL flights).

AirlineOriginDestinationTypeFrequencyComment
Aer lingusDUBMalaga (AGP)A330daily may to 27 oct
Air EuropaMadridLas Palmas330, 7872 daily summer
Air EuropaMadridBarcelona3302-3 daily787 from 28 oct
Air FranceCDG, ORYoverseas777,340daily
British AirwaysLondon LHRAthens767daily
British AirwaysLondon LHRRome767daily
British AirwaysLondon LHRMadrid767, 343, 346, 330daily
British AirwaysLondon LHRMoscow787, 777787 from 2 april- 27 oct, then 777
British AirwaysLondon LHRFRA767daily
British AirwaysLondon LHRARN767daily
British AirwaysLondon LHREDI767frequent
British AirwaysLondon LHRGlasgow767frequent
FinnairLHRHELA350daily
IberiaMADLHRA35020JUL18 – 31AUG18 IB3166
IcelandairReykjavik KEFCPH767occasional
IcelandairReykjavik KEFAMS767daily, summer occasional
IcelandairReykjavik KEFZRH767almost daily jun - sept
IcelandairReykjavik KEFlhr767daily
Sichuan AirllinesPRGZRHA330Wednesday, Saturdaystarting june 23, 2018
SwissGenevaZurich77Woccasionalsometimes
TUIBRUTenerifeB767occasional
WOWReykjavik KEFCDGA330frequent
WOWReykjavik KEFAMSA330occasional

 

Any suggestions or new additions to the list will be appreciated. I hope you found this helpful. I enjoy doing these lists, so expect another article soon on another aviation list/map subject…

Til next time!

 

10 thoughts on “Widebody operated flights in Europe in 2018”

  1. Missing some here
    AMS-SVO Aeroflot with A330, daily sometimes double daily
    AMS-MAD Air Europa with A330 and B787 few times a week, some double daily
    CDG-LHR Air France with B787, Daily
    SVO-TFS Aeroflot A330 Daily
    LHR-AMS Bristish Airways B767 daily
    MAD-TFN Air Europa B787/A330 few times a week

  2. Just recently Air Europe were offering 787 flights from Madrid to Rome, but have seen they no longer offer this option. Does anyone know if they will offer wide bodied flight to Italy in the near future.

  3. Philippa Jeanson

    I have been flying from Heathrow to Athens on a wide bodied plane 767 British Airways. Now they have stopped the 767 are there alternatives to flying in a wide bodied plane from Heathrow to Athens?

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