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Air France has issued a reminder of its network plans and things are looking good for transatlantic flyers. We have a new route, a restarted route and more flights on the way (all previously announced), and the airline is promising to roll out its newest Business Class product on more North American routes this summer.
Air France is returning to Minneapolis
After suspending the route in January 2023, Air France will now restart flights between Paris and Minneapolis on 13 May 2024.
This is what the schedule currently looks like:
AF634 CDG 15:40 – 17:30 MSP (Daily)
AF635 MSP 19:40 – 10:55+1 day CDG (Daily)
Note: The service won’t operate on 14 May (for reasons best known to Air France) but this will be a daily service from then through to 29 September when it is (again) removed from the schedules.
The route is set to be operated by an Air France 787-9 Dreamliner featuring a 30 Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 layout, 21 Premium Economy seats in a 2-3-2 layout, and 228 Economy Class seats in a 3-3-3 layout.
Delta (and Air France partner) launched a service between Minneapolis and Paris approximately 6 months after Air France appeared to exit the market, so now that the French carrier is back on the scene, it will be interesting to see how Delta reacts (if at all).
Phoenix is getting a new service from Paris
Air France has confirmed that its new route between Paris and Phoenix is still going ahead as planned and that the service will launch on 23 May 2024.
As things stand, this is what the schedule looks like:
AF68 CDG 10:10 – 12:10 PHX (Tue, Thu, & Sat)
AF69 PHX 14:10 – 09:15+1 day CDG (Tue, Thu, & Sat)
Like the Minneapolis route, this will be operated by an Air France 787-9 Dreamliner featuring 30/21/228 seats in Business Class/Premium Economy/Economy Class, but unlike the Minneapolis route, flights to/from Phoenix will only be offered three times a week.
Also unlike the Minneapolis route, this service is currently scheduled to operate into the winter season with flights currently bookable into February 2025.
Raleigh-Durham getting more flights
Air France’s route between Paris and Raleigh-Durham first launched at the start of this winter season in October 2023 and the route has clearly done very well.
Originally scheduled for the winter season only, this route will soon be offered year-round with the number of flights increasing from 3x/week to 5x/week from 29 April and then to 7x/week from 6 June.
This is the planned summer schedule from 6 June:
AF692 CDG 13:15 – 16:00 RDU (Daily)
AF693 RDU 18:10 – 08:00+1 day CDG (Daily)
Also from 6 June, this route will be operated by an Airbus A350-900 instead of a 787-9 Dreamliner which will see the route get 4 more Business Class seats, 3 more Premium Economy seats, and 38 more Economy Class seats.
New Air France Business Class coming to more routes
Air Frances announced its newest Business Class seat in October 2022, and it has been flying since ~March 2023, but not all North American routes currently feature this product.
This highly acclaimed new product (complete with privacy door) is being fitted to the airline’s 777-300ER and A350-900 aircraft and, at the time of writing, is available on select flights to the following North American destinations:
- Boston
- Houston
- New York (EWR)
- New York (JFK)
- Washington D.C.
Air France has now confirmed that during the upcoming summer season it hopes to roll out the new product on select flights to Chicago, Los Angeles*, Mexico City, San Francisco, and Toronto.
*Los Angeles appears to be getting the new A350 cabin from 1 June 2024.
Air France is only fitting the new Business Class seats to 12 of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and to its newer Airbus A350-900s and this is how to tell if an aircraft you’re scheduled to fly will offer the new product:
The Air France 777-300ERs with the new Business Class seat do not offer a First Class cabin and have 48 Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 layout across 14 rows.
The Air France Airbus A350-900s with the new Business Class cabin have 48 Business Class seats set out across 14 rows (the A350s with the older product have 30 seats across 9 rows).
Note: Aircraft changes are frequent, so just because a particular flight currently shows that it’s offering the new Business Class product that’s not a guarantee that you’ll experience that product if you book that flight.
Bottom Line
Air France is returning to Minneapolis (for a few months) from 13 May, it’s starting a new route to Phoenix from 23 May, it’s going to offer its Raleigh-Durham route year-round, and 7x/week and it plans to offer its newest Business Class cabin on select flights to 10 North American destinations by the end of the summer season.
