Air France-KLM has unveiled its winter schedule, with capacity - expressed in seat-kilometres - increasing by 2.8%, compared with just 1.1% for the medium- and short-haul network passenger business. This represents 44 new routes on the long-haul medium-haul and short-haul networks compared with winter 2017-2018, giving a total increase in capacity of 2.5%.
On long-haul routes, there has been a sharp increase in both carriers' services to North America and Africa, and to India and Japan in Asia. In North America, Air France will continue to serve Seattleinaugurated on 25 March, with three flights a week. The Group is increasing the number of flights on the Paris-Detroit (one flight a day), Paris-Montreal (13 flights a week) and Paris-New York (28 flights a week) routes, as well as on the routes linking Amsterdam to Calgary (one flight a day), Minneapolis (4 flights a week) and Toronto (9 flights a week).
In Latin America, the two airlines are considerably strengthening their services to Costa Rica. San José now flies daily to Paris CDG (4 times a week) and Amsterdam (3 times a week), an increase of 30% compared with last winter.
Brazil and Argentina are also benefiting from additional flights. To Fortaleza, Joon will operate three flights a week, while Air France will increase its flights to Rio de Janeiro from 7 to ten a week. To Buenos Aires, KLM will now offer a daily frequency from Amsterdam.
Finally, in the Caribbean, Air France is supporting the recovery of tourism after the terrible hurricane of 2017. Air France will be offering five flights a week from Paris CDG compared with one weekly flight at the start of the year.
Asia and the Middle East
Air France confirms the good performance of the new route launched in the spring to Taipei by continuing to operate three flights a week. But it is above all to India and Japan that we have seen a strong increase in capacity. Bombay (Mumbai) is now served by a daily Joon flight from Paris and four weekly flights from Amsterdam by KLM. In total, the Group will offer 32 flights a week between Europe and India with Air France, KLM and Joon.
Also on the Indian subcontinent, Air France will be offering an additional flight to Malé in the Maldives, for a total of three flights a week.
Capacity has been increased by 8% to the Japanese archipelago, with 12 weekly flights now offered from Paris CDG to Tokyo Haneda. To Osaka, the duo offers one daily flight from Amsterdam and five weekly flights from Paris CDG, two more than in the previous season.
Finally, Dubai will benefit from a significant increase in frequencies from the two airlines. Air France is adding three flights a week and KLM two flights a week from February. This means a total of 19 weekly flights to the economic metropolis of the UAE.
Africa
West Africa is the focus of Air France-KLM's attention this winter, with a 10% increase in seat-km capacity. To Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Accra (Ghana), travellers from Paris will benefit from one daily flight on each of these routes instead of two and four weekly frequencies in the past. To Lomé (Togo), Air France will offer a daily flight thanks to 3 additional weekly flights in addition to the 4 weekly connections Paris - Niamey - Lomé.
To Kenya, the two carriers will offer ten weekly flights this winter, with three flights/week from Paris and seven flights/week from Amsterdam. KLM, on the other hand, will cease services to Sierra Leone and Liberia at the end of January.
Europe and the Mediterranean basin
While the increase in capacity remains moderate on the short and medium-haul network, with an increase of 1.1% compared with the previous season, the Air France-KLM group is nonetheless offering twenty new routes. At Paris-CDG, Air France will operate flights to Bari and Catania in Italy, Cork in Ireland, Wroclaw in Poland and on the domestic network to Lorient and Toulon. Joon will continue to land at Bergen in Norway, while from Orly, HOP! returns to La Rochelle.
From the French regions, HOP! will offer services from Marseille to Caen and Metz-Nancy, as well as new services on the Lille-Brest, Lorient-Lyon and Rennes-Strasbourg routes. To Europe, HOP! will launch services on the Caen-Geneva and Rennes-Brussels routes. Finally, from Amsterdam, the only new route to Europe will be operated by KLM to Växjö in Sweden.
