The Airbus A300 entered commercial service in 1974.
Air France operated the first scheduled A300 service on 23 May 1974, flying between Paris and London. The aircraft was developed as Airbus Industrie’s first production airliner and became the world’s first twin-engine wide-body commercial jet.
The A300 was designed to carry more passengers than narrow-body aircraft while using only two engines. That combination helped reduce operating costs compared with four-engine wide-body jets. Its success also gave Airbus the commercial foundation needed to develop later aircraft families.
The year 1974 is sometimes confused with 1972, when the A300 prototype first flew, or with 1969, when the Airbus consortium was formally established. Those dates describe development and company history, not airline service.