Air France: New features for 2011

Friday 31 December 2010

Starting this spring, Air France will be operating several weekly flights to four new destinations: Billund in Denmark, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Lima in Peru and Orlando in Florida. The Airbus A380 will start operating to Montreal and Washington and as from January 2011, the Paris-Ho Chi Minh City route will be operated by the 200th Boeing delivered to Air France in December, a Boeing 777-300 ER.

New destinations

Starting in March 2011, Air France will be operating a non-stop service three times a day between Paris-CDG and Billund, Denmark’s second busiest airport and 5th in Scandinavia.

With KLM already operating a route between Amsterdam and Billund, the AIR FRANCE-KLM group will serve a total of three destinations in Denmark: Copenhagen, Billund and Aalborg. The Air France KLM network in Northern Europe will cover 13 destinations.

At the same time, in South East Asia, Air France will start operating flights to Phnom Penh. The three weekly flights, with a stopover in Bangkok, will be operated by the Airbus A340-300 equipped with 275 seats (30 in Business, 21 in Premium Voyageur and 224 in Economy), then in summer 2011 by the Boeing 777-200ER equipped with 309 seats (35 in Business, 24 in Premium Voyageur and 250 in Economy).

Starting in June 2011, Air France will fly to Lima and Orlando, two new destinations in America.

The Paris-Lima route will be operated 5 times a week by Boeing 777-200. As for Orlando, this route, operated by Air France and Delta, will be operated within the framework of the transatlantic joint venture signed in 2009 by Air France, KLM and Delta Airlines and since July 2010 by Alitalia. This joint venture offers customers additional frequencies and adapted schedules, a vast network with 248 daily flights operated by around 144 aircraft as well as 26 gateways in North America and 33 in Europe.

A modern fleet

Air France will operate a daily flight between Paris and Montreal by Airbus A380 as from 9 May 2011 and the Paris-Washington route as from 6 June 2011. Air France will operate its A380 to 5 destinations from Paris-CDG: New York-JFK, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Montreal and Washington.

With the A380, Air France can rationalize its frequencies on these busy routes by combining two flights which leave at similar times while offering the same seat capacity at a 20% reduction in operating costs. The main deck of the A380 boasts equivalent capacity of a Boeing 777-200 and the upper deck that of an Airbus A340-300.

Air France’s A380 today offers three cabin classes with 538 seats, including 9 in La Première (First) on the main deck, 80 in Affaires (Business) on the upper deck and 449 in Voyageur (Economy) divided between the two decks.

Starting in summer 2011, the A380s will gradually be equipped with the Premium Voyageur cabin, located between the Business and Economy cabins, with a cabin configuration of 9 seats in First, 80 in Business, 38 in Premium Voyageur and 389 in Economy.

The 200th Boeing 777-300ER, which entered the Air France fleet at the beginning of December, will start operating the new non-stop Paris-Ho Chi Minh City route as from January 2011. This is the first aircraft equipped with the new Business class seats and the new cabin interior, as well as several new features such as an in-flight entertainment system which has been developed exclusively for Air France and new bars in all cabins.

Out of the 11 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft ordered, Air France will have received 4 by May 2011.