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With the United States having finally opened its borders to travelers originating in the Schengen Area, Air France has announced that it will ramp up its transatlantic operations to levels not seen since before the pandemic. The airline has confirmed that it will operate to 11 US destinations and will offer up to 122 weekly flights this winter season and that’s great news for flyers.
Air France boosts transatlantic flights
Air France has confirmed that it expects to offer ~90% of the capacity it offered in winter 2019 between now and March 2022 and that’s huge news for the travel industry. Not only does this mean that we’re starting to see airlines happy to bring back most of their pre-pandemic flying, but it also means that airlines are clearly starting to see demand that justifies their return to the skies.
Air France returns to Seattle
From 6 December, Air France will once again fly between Paris (CDG) and Seattle with a 3x/week service on the following schedule:
AF368 CDG 10:15 – 11:30 SEA (Mon, Thu & Sat)
AF367 SEA 13:45 – 08:30+1 day CDG (Mon, Thu & Sat)
The route will be operated by an Air France 777-200ER aircraft which, fortunately, appears to be one of the airline’s refurbished aircraft complete with its excellent 1-2-1 all-aisle-access Business Class cabin and a 24-seat Premium Economy cabin.
Los Angeles to Papete is back
If you live on the West Coast and have plans to visit French Polynesia, this is the news you’ve probably been waiting for. As of 11 November (tomorrow!), Air France will be bringing back its route between Los Angeles and Tahiti on the following schedule:
AF76 LAX 23:35 – 06:15+1 day PPT (Tue, Thu & Sat)
AF77 PPT 08:25 – 18:35 LAX (Wed, Fri & Sun)
Just like the Seattle route, the flights to/from Papette will offer Air France’s refurbished 777-200ER with its all-aisle-access Business Class cabin and 24-seat Premium Economy cabin.
Boosted service to 3 US cities
To help meet its target of offering 90% of the capacity it offered in winter 2019, Air France will be increasing its frequencies on three key US routes:
- Los Angeles will get 17 weekly flights from Paris (up from 12)
- Miami will get 12 weekly flights (up from 7)
- New York (JFK) will get 5 daily flights (up from 3)
All three of these cities will be served by aircraft offering the airline’s best Business Class seats and all three routes will also offer Air France’s famed First Class cabin (but not on all flights).
The Air France winter schedule for US destinations
Overall, these are the US destinations that Air France will serve this winter:
- Atlanta: 14 weekly flights with an Airbus A350-900
- Boston: 7 weekly flights with an Airbus A350-900
- Chicago: 5 weekly flights with a Boeing 777-300
- Detroit: 5 weekly flights with a Boeing 787-9
- Washington DC: 7 weekly flights with a Boeing 777-300
- Houston: 5 weekly flights with a Boeing 777-300
- New York (JFK): 35 weekly flights with Boeing 777-200 and -300 aircraft
- Los Angeles: 17 weekly flights with Boeing 777-200 and -300 aircraft
- Miami: 12 weekly flights with Boeing 777-300 and Airbus A350-900 aircraft
- Seattle: 3 weekly flights with an Airbus A350-900
- San Francisco: 7 weekly flights with a Boeing 777-300
Air France is also launching a new route between the US and the Caribbean later this month and details of that route will be coming up HERE at 14:30ET/11:30PT.
Bottom Line
The borders are open and Air France is planning to pour across them with up to 122 weekly flights to/from the United States. The route between Seattle and Paris is coming back, flights from the West Coast to Tahiti are back and New York will once again be served 5x daily by Air France – things are looking good.
Featured image courtesy of Air France
[…] its network and as the dates for those route launches approach, I thought that I’d follow up my earlier post on Air France’s routes to the US with a reminder that we’ll soon be able to use Air France to fly from the US (and Canada) to […]