After a summer in which Air France was the Official Airline Partner of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the French national carrier is already looking ahead to the upcoming northern winter season for 2024/2025. On September 17, 2024, the airline unveiled its full winter schedule which will see eight new routes and five new destinations added to the company’s route network.
Throughout the period of November 2024 to March 2025, the airline will serve 169 destinations in 73 countries, including 85 long-haul and 84 short- and medium-haul destinations.
Over the winter period, the airline will operate long-haul flights to 85 cities worldwide, including four new destinations served by the carrier for the first time. These will include Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, which will be served by three flights a week by Airbus A350-900 aircraft starting November 18, 2024. This service will be an extension of its current Zanzibar service and marks Air France’s 26th destination in Africa this winter (excluding North African destinations).
Elsewhere, Salvador de Bahia in Brazil will receive three flights a week starting October 28, 2024, operated using Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The destination becomes Air France’s fifth destination in Brazil, after Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Fortaleza, and Belém. Frequencies to Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza will also be increased this winter, with up to 10 and five flights a week respectively. In total, Air France will offer up to 32 flights a week to and from Brazil, with connecting opportunities to 40 domestic destinations through the carrier’s commercial partnership with Brazilian carrier GOL.
As previously reported by AeroTime, Manila in the Philippines will see three flights per week starting December 7, 2024, operated using Airbus A350-900 aircraft. Meanwhile, Malé in the Maldives is added with up to two flights a week during the peak holiday season, from December 20, 2024, to January 5, 2025. Flights will be operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
On the long-haul side, the carrier is adding frequencies to several other destinations including Saint-Martin, Denver, and Phoenix. Looking at short-haul, Air France will operate over 630 flights a day and will be upgrading its service across Northern Europe
On medium-haul routes, the winter season will see a strengthening of service including the opening of a new route to Kiruna in Sweden. Air France will operate flights to Kiruna once a week between December 21, 2024, and March 8, 2025, using Airbus A319 aircraft.
During the holiday season, Air France will offer flights to destinations that were previously served only in summer, including Tangiers (Morocco) with up to three flights a week from December 22, 2024, to January 3, 2025.
Meanwhile, in addition to the new Air France services, Transavia France, the Air France-KLM Group’s low-cost subsidiary, will offer flights to 102 destinations in 20 countries via 172 routes in winter 2024/25. This will make the budget carrier the busiest low-cost airline to and from Paris, as its nearest rival easyJet makes changes to its Paris bases, as previously reported by AeroTime.