Summary
- Air France’s 472-seat Boeing 777-300ERs have more seats than any other type/variant in its fleet.
- Naturally, they focus on leisure and visiting friends and relatives markets, especially in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean.
- Miami was to have flights by them this winter, but the plan has changed.
Air France has 61 passenger-configured Boeing 777s, more than any other subfleet. Some 43 of these are 777-300ERs, the first of which was delivered 20 years ago in April 2004—to be replaced by incoming Airbus A350-1000s.
The SkyTeam member airline’s 300ERs are in three configurations: 296 seats (very premium), 369 seats (medium-level), and 472 (very leisure-heavy). The latter is Air France’s highest-capacity equipment and up there with the world’s highest-capacity 777s, although a few other carriers surpass it. Air Canada’s 450-seat 300ERs do not.
Air France’s 472-seaters
According to ch-aviation, Air France has 12 777-300ERs in the 472-seat configuration. The non-first-class aircraft have three classes: 14 seats in business (1-2-1 layout), 28 in premium economy (2-4-2), and a massive 430 in economy (3-4-3). Business class accounts for just 3% of capacity, three times less than Emirates’ 615-seat A380s.
A network summary
According to the schedule Air France has submitted to Cirium, the carrier’s 472-seat 300ER network from September 2024 to February 2025 is as follows. As ever, it is subject to change.
The carrier plans 1,545 departures from Paris, of which 1,052 are from CDG and 493 from Orly. There are 22 routes: 18 from CDG and four from Orly. In the analyzed period, some links will only have one flight on the 472-seater.
Image: GCMap
Given the very low-premium nature of the aircraft, the destinations revolve around leisure or visiting friends and relatives demand. While the very high-capacity aircraft are very heavy and have a higher trip cost than lighter alternatives, they have a lower seat-mile cost, which is crucial for lower-yielding markets. This helps to drive the much higher passenger volume needed to offset the lower premium demand.
Image: Air France
22 routes: where they’ll fly
While the above map is a bit hard to read, there is a significant emphasis on French locations in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, which are considered domestic. Some 58% of the 472-seater’s flights are to Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, and Réunion.
Again, the information is for September-February only. It provides a snapshot of the plan as of September 6. Many routes have different frequencies depending on the week. When added to varying periods of operation, it is a complex mess. I have tried to make the following list as understandable as possible.
- Orly-Réunion (180 September-February departures): daily
- Orly-Pointe-à-Pitre (159): mainly daily
- Orly-Fort-de-France (153): mainly daily
- CDG-Fort-de-France (152): mainly daily
- CDG-Pointe-à-Pitre (144): mainly daily
- CDG-Abu Dhabi (125): daily from October 27 (route returned in 2023, having last been served by Air France in 2013)
- CDG-Mauritius (125): daily from October 27
- CDG-Dubai (118): mainly daily from October 27
- CDG–Réunion (114): three weekly to daily
- CDG-Montreal (106): weekly to 10 weekly (until October 26, then around Christmas/New Year)
- CDG-Lima (44): weekly to daily until October 26 (briefly returns in January/February)
- CDG-Cancun (43): weekly to five weekly
- CDG-Havana (24): two to three weekly until October 26 (returns briefly in December)
- CDG-Bangkok (17): Monday, Thursday, Saturday until October 16
- CDG-Toronto (14): daily until September 5, with nine more flights in September/October/December
- CDG-Vancouver (9): September 8, 14, 20, 22, October 4, 6, 9, 13, 19
- CDG-Djibouti (5): September 4, 25, October 2, 9, 16
- CDG-Québec City (5): September 1, 6, 13, 27, October 4 (the seasonal route ends shortly afterward)
- CDG-Dakar (4): September 3, 7, 17, 24
- CDG-Beirut (2): September 25 and October 2 only
- CDG-Abidjan (1): December 12 only
- Orly-Bastia (1): September 1 only (the last widebody flight of the summer)
No US route
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the US has barely seen Air France’s highest-capacity equipment. Only Miami has, and that was briefly. Examining the schedule of the 472-seater shows that the Florida city first did so in April 2023, then through winter 2023/2024 until March 2024. Until earlier this year, Air France had scheduled it to operate to Miami again this winter, but it was pulled.