Critical Aviator 1/400 collection

[777-300ER]

It had its name changed in 2021 and I saw it at ORY in 2024, so I don’t think that’s why they changed it. I doubt that AF choose to name their aircraft based on where they are flying. I say that because there is a 777-300ER named ‘Papeete’ despite that, to my knowledge AF never sent the -300ER to Tahiti and the only times we see the AF A350 flying in mainland France outside of CDG are 1) at TLS before delivery or 2) for special occasions like the Cannes film festival. My point is that most AF aircraft have names of places they have never flown to.

AF had never sent any 77W to Papeete, but only 772 and A359 like you said

The name they give to their aircrafts is random and has nothing to do with the aircraft’s destination itself. However, some times, it can be precisely chosen on a specific aircraft in order to commemorate something. As I know, it was only the case for 3 regs: F-HTYA (the 1st A359 of the fleet, named "Toulouse", where it was assembled), F-HUVJ (named "Paris" for the 2024 JO) and F-HEPC (named "Basse-Terre" for the reason which I’m going to explain).

100% of AF wide-body fleet exclusively operate from and to Paris CDG, and 99% of these flights are international flights. So naming all these aircrafts "Paris" wouldn’t make sense, right? Only 12 77W (COI configuration) and some 772 can be selected on long-haul domestic routes to French overseas (some of these flights used to operate from or to ORY until April 2026). In that case, Air France could had named some of their 12 COI 77W after Pointe-à-Pitre, Saint-Denis de La Réunion… but for some reasons, they didn’t.

However, while the wide-body fleet exclusively operates from and to CDG, this is not the case for the narrow body fleet. And some A320s were sent in the Caribbean to exclusively operate between Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Miami (they wouldn’t cross the Atlantic to get back to CDG before a long time). So, in order to commemorate these "special" routes, they might have named F-HEPC "Basse-Terre" and would have sent this reg in these overseas territories before it rejoined metropolitan France weeks later (definitely years before you spotted it in 2024 ).

 

[Critical Aviator]

AF had never sent any 77W to Papeete, but only 772 and A359 like you said

The name they give to their aircrafts is random and has nothing to do with the aircraft’s destination itself. However, some times, it can be precisely chosen on a specific aircraft in order to commemorate something. As I know, it was only the case for 3 regs: F-HTYA (the 1st A359 of the fleet, named "Toulouse", where it was assembled), F-HUVJ (named "Paris" for the 2024 JO) and F-HEPC (named "Basse-Terre" for the reason which I’m going to explain).

100% of AF wide-body fleet exclusively operate from and to Paris CDG, and 99% of these flights are international flights. So naming all these aircrafts "Paris" wouldn’t make sense, right? Only 12 77W (COI configuration) and some 772 can be selected on long-haul domestic routes to French overseas (some of these flights used to operate from or to ORY until April 2026). In that case, Air France could had named some of their 12 COI 77W after Pointe-à-Pitre, Saint-Denis de La Réunion… but for some reasons, they didn’t.

However, while the wide-body fleet exclusively operates from and to CDG, this is not the case for the narrow body fleet. And some A320s were sent in the Caribbean to exclusively operate between Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Miami (they wouldn’t cross the Atlantic to get back to CDG before a long time). So, in order to commemorate these "special" routes, they might have named F-HEPC "Basse-Terre" and would have sent this reg in these overseas territories before it rejoined metropolitan France weeks later (definitely years before you spotted it in 2024 ).

I didn’t know that, thanks a lot ! I always thought that, with the exception of F-HTYA ‘Toulouse’, F-HUVJ ‘Paris’ and maybe F-HZUA ‘Le Bourget’ , the naming of the AF fleet was so random that it had no relation to where the aircraft is supposed to fly.