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Air France pursues growth in Africa

13th October 2010 Print

Established in Africa for nearly 75 years, Air France is continuing to increase its capacity in this region of the world.

By teaming up with KLM and its African partners, Air France can offer its customers an increasingly enlarged network with new destinations, more frequencies and direct flights to and from the Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol hubs.  The Air France KLM Group offers 43 destinations served by 206 weekly frequencies.

This winter 2010-2011, Air France and KLM’s available capacity will increase by more than 4% (measured in terms of available seat-km) compared with the previous year. 

By summer 2011, flights will be operated to five new destinations (subject to obtaining traffic rights):

* Bata (winter 2010), in Equatorial Guinea, with two weekly frequencies served by an Air France Dedicate A319
* Kigali (winter 2010), in Rwanda, served by KLM, via Entebbe, five times weekly.
* Freetown (summer 2011), in Sierra Leone, served by Air France, twice weekly
* Monrovia (summer 2011), in Liberia, served by Air France, three times weekly
* Tripoli (summer 2011), in Libya, served five times weekly by Air France as well as daily flights operated by KLM 

Air France and KLM will also increase their services to five destinations:

* Pointe Noire in Republic of the Congo: five weekly Air France flights
* Libreville: five weekly Air France flights, subject to obtaining traffic rights from the Gabon authorities
* Malabo, in Equatorial Guinea: one daily Air France Dedicate flight from September 2010
* Dar Es Salaam and  Kilimandjaro in Tanzania served daily by KLM. 

KLM should also increase its frequencies to serve Tripoli with daily flights, Abuja/Kano four times weekly, and Entebbe/Kigali six times weekly. 

Thanks to partnership agreements, Air France and KLM customers benefit from even more destinations and frequencies: Bujumbura, Dzaoudzi, Kisumu, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Mombasa and Moroni with Kenya Airways out of the Nairobi hub, or the South-African cities with Comair out of Amsterdam, via Johannesburg.

At the same time, Air France continues to improve the quality of its service. The airline is continuing to roll out the new Premium Voyageur class on the African continent. This winter, this cabin will be available on flights to and from 95% of African destinations served by wide-bodied aircraft. At an extremely competitive fare, Premium Voyageur customers enjoy a private cabin with 40% extra space, and a 48-cm wide, fixed-shell seat that reclines to 123°. On African routes, customers can also choose between four travel classes: La Première, Business, Premium Voyageur, Voyageur and the Dedicate service, a tailored offer for oil and gas professionals travelling to certain destinations.   

Customers also benefit from a more advantageous baggage allowance on flights to 40 African destinations, notably with the possibility of checking in a free second baggage item for customers travelling in Voyageur class. 

On flights to Africa, Air France operates the most modern aircraft in its long-haul fleet, whose average lifespan is 8.1 years, featuring the most technologically-advanced in-flight equipment. Thanks to the VOD (video on demand) system, an in-flight entertainment system offering 600 hours of programming with 85 feature films and a selection of 240 CDs totalling 3,000 music titles – is available around the clock. 

In February 2010, the airline brought into service the Airbus A380 between Paris and Johannesburg, making it the first airline to operate this Super jumbo in Africa.