Just 80 Airbus A318s were built, not helped by relatively poor economics compared to larger alternatives, as is normally the case with the smallest version in an aircraft family. Only two airlines – Air France and Romania's TAROM – still use the type on a scheduled flight basis, with the pair operating 13 examples – 11 of which are active.

The A318 did find a niche, particularly very short runways. It was also certified for the steep approach into London City (a 4,948ft runway; 1,508 m); British Airways used it to New York JFK (with an outbound stop in Shannon). Nonetheless, it is much more popular in a business jet role (ACJ318) than it is with commercial carriers.

Air France has nine A318s

According to ch-aviation, Air France has nine A318s, all in service. A further nine are now used by other operators, scrapped, or stored. Three were removed in 2022; the process of being replaced by 148-seat A220-300s continues.

Air France's A318s have 131 seats in the same configuration: 18 in business and 113 in economy. It is the smallest aircraft in the SkyTeam member's mainline fleet.

Like many airlines globally, it is gradually upgauging, with the seat-mile and revenue benefits that results in. The A220 provides 13% more seats than the A318 for just a 4% higher maximum takeoff weight. The 'baby bus' A318 is too heavy for its capacity.

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TAROM has four A318s

Aside from Air France, TAROM is the only other scheduled airline to use the A318. It has four aircraft, each delivered from Airbus and each with just 113 seats: 14 in business and 99 in economy. As of March 30th, only two are active.

All four were for sale in 2021 and were to be replaced by 737 MAX 8s, but it clearly came to nothing. According to a CAPA article from March 28th, 2023, all four are still to be sold. This appears to be simply a reaffirmation of the desire to sell; not that anything has been concluded. It seems that the lowest selling price is $5.1 million per frame.

Flightradar24 shows that 16.4-year-old YR-ASA last flew on February 13th from London Heathrow to Bucharest. Meanwhile, 15.4-year-old YR-ASC's most recent flight was on September 26th, from Frankfurt to the Romanian capital. This leaves the two active aircraft: 16.3-year-old YR-ASB and 15.3-year-old YR-ASD (see the above photo).

Click here for London-Bucharest flights.

Where they fly this summer

I have used Cirium data to analyze the A318 summer schedules of both Air France and TAROM. Air France has scheduled it on 55 routes, while TAROM has 14, as shown below. Many will see the 'baby bus' only once or twice or a handful of times.

Across both carriers, the A318 has 11,725 roundtrip summer flights, with each airline's top five routes as follows. The lack of remaining aircraft means that these 10 routes are responsible for 63% of the type's total summer operation.

With one in five A318 services, it should not be surprising that Paris CDG-Florence is so important. After all, Florence, in Italy's Tuscany, is renowned for having a very short runway of just 5,118ft (1,560 m).

Click here for Paris-Florence flights.

Have you flown the A318? If so, share your experience in the comments.