Air France has announced it will be continuing its fleet modernization and will increase its range of products and services over the coming year.
The new Premium Voyageur cabin, Air France’s Premium Economy product, is now available on 90% of long-haul routes operated by Air France from Paris Charles de Gaulle.
From the end of this year, Air France’s new long haul Business Class seat, which is more comfortable and has new added features compared to the old seat, will be installed on specific long-haul aircraft.
Since the beginning of October, three destinations have received the luxury Airbus A380 superjumbo: New York (5 times weekly), Johannesburg and Tokyo Narita (one daily flight). Air France plans to launch its fifth and sixth A380s beginning in May and June 2011. The airline has also equipped 90% its medium-haul fleet with new lighter seats offering more legroom.
On routes to North America and Latin America, Air France will operate 6 daily frequencies to New York, increase capacity to Boston and Mexico and operate two daily flights to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
The carrier will be increasing seat capacity to Asian destinations this winter, offering daily services to Bangalore in India.
The daily flight from Paris-Bangkok by A340 will now no longer continue to Vietnam, whilst flights to Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi will become direct, non-stop flights. There will be 5 weekly services to Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi in cooperation with Vietnam Airlines, with Air France operating 3 out of the 5 flights to Ho Chi Minh.
In Japan, Air France will be operating flights to the new international terminal at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which opened to passengers last week. Haneda Airport is closer to Tokyo’s city centre than Narita, Tokyo’s major international airport.
On the African continent, Air France will be adding a new destination to its route network with Bata in Equatorial New Guinea. Bata will be served twice weekly via Malabo using an A319 Dedicate aircraft and there will be daily flights to Malabo.
The airline will also be increasing the number of weekly flight to Pointe Noire in the Republic of Congo to 5 nights per week. The number of flights to Libreville will similarly be upped to 5 flights per week. Finally, services to Djibouti will be increased from one weekly flight to 3 weekly flights via Jeddah.
Middle-Eastern destinations will see an increase in the number of Air France planes touching down. There’ll be an increase in capacity on flights to Saudi Arabia, whilst services to Riyadh and Jeddah will become daily. Both these destinations will be served 3 times weekly by an Air France A330 and by a Saudi Arabian Airlines A320 on the other 4 days.
In the Indian Ocean, Air France is increasing the number of flights to Reunion Island to 9 a week over the winter season.
As for the medium-haul schedule, there’ll be a few changes over the winter 2010 season. Oslo, Oviedo and Verona will see an additional flight departing from Paris.
There will be 2 daily flights to Sofia this winter due to a new partnership with Bulgaria signed in May, plus there’ll be an increase in the number of flights between the UK and France after Air France signed a deal with UK airline Flybe.
It won’t just be flights from Paris that will see an increase. In the French regions, there will be two new daily routes from Toulouse to Dusseldorf and Hamburg. Flights to Copenhagen, Munich and Madrid, however, are being suspended from Lyon.
Cityjet, an Air France subsidiary service from London City, is having its network restructured; meaning an extra flight to Paris-Orly will be added, bringing the total to 6 daily flights. There will be less flights to Dublin (4 daily flights), Edinburgh (3 daily flights), Amsterdam (8 daily flights) and Dundee (2 daily flights) and services to Jersey are being suspended.
In the Netherlands, the Lyon-Amsterdam route is being reduced from 4 to 3 daily flights. A new route will be added on Air France’s domestic network, with the re-opening of the Nantes-Paris Orly route with 4 daily flights.
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