Air France to Increase Flights to U.S. for 2024 Paris Olympics
The airline's long-haul capacity will increase by up to 9% for the event, while special flights to LAX are also being laid on for the Cannes Film Festival
Photo: Courtesy of Air France-KLM
Air France will expand its long-haul international network capacity by up to nine percent this summer, including increased flights to the U.S., in preparation for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
The Olympics are set to start in the French capital on Friday, July 26, and the two-week global sporting event is expected to bring in spectators from across the world, resulting in a significant increase in demand for air travel to France over the summer months. However, the French flag carrier is confident it can handle this surge in demand, especially as it is boosting its capacity to meet it.
As announced this week, Air France will operate long-haul flights to 85 destinations across 74 countries this summer, which would be a nine percent increase compared to the summer of 2023.
Photo: Business Class, Boeing 777-300ER. Courtesy of Air France.
A significant part of this expansion will benefit U.S.-France connections, including a previously-announced 3x weekly service between Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), operated with its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which’s scheduled to begin on March 23.
Air France will also resume a daily nonstop service to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) on May 13, and its service to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) will increase from three times per week to seven.
Flights for the Cannes Film Festival
In addition to the new flights to support demand for the Olympics, Air France will add two special flights between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE) this spring for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, which is scheduled to place over a week starting May 14.
Photo: Cannes, France. Courtesy of Jannis Lucas / Unsplash
Air France will serve 17 U.S. destinations with over 210 flights per week this summer. In addition to Phoenix, Minneapolis, Raleigh, and Los Angeles, the French flag carrier will also operate flights to Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Denver (DEN), Detroit (DTW), Houston (IAH), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), and Washington Dulles (IAD).
Canada will also be served by almost 60 Air France flights per week across five cities – Montreal (YMQ), Quebec City (YQB), Ottawa (YOW), Toronto (YTO), and Vancouver (YVR).
Elsewhere, Air France is expanding its daily winter service to Abu Dhabi (AUH) throughout the summer, resuming direct flights to Dar Es Salam (DAR) in Tanzania, increasing flight frequencies to both Tokyo Haneda (HND) and Tokyo Narita (NRT). Flight capacity will also be boosted on key routes from CDG to Africa and the Indian Ocean, including Yaounde (YAO), Brazzaville (BZV), and Antananarivo (TNR).
