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Air France is preparing for a busy summer of travel and intends to fly to nearly 200 different destinations. The airline is even planning to deploy 22 extra aircraft that are currently in storage.

Network

Most of the planned Air France routes are within Europe, with 81 seasonal routes, 23 of which are new. There are also 40 domestic destinations (including the French Caribbean).

In Europe, the emphasis is on popular holiday countries such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. For example, capacity to Greece will be increased by 80% (compared to the summer of 2019). In order to operate these flights, Air France is removing 10 medium-haul and 12 long-haul aircraft from storage. A total of 181 aircraft will be deployed this summer.

Overall though, capacity is still far from the level it was before the pandemic. The summer schedule in July and August offers 65% capacity compared to the summer of 2019. 

Naturally, Air France has made clear that the summer timetable is still subject to change, if international entry restrictions change.

Bottom line

With the increasingly successful vaccine roll-out across Europe, it’s great to see travel beginning to open up again. It looks like widespread travel abroad might take a little longer here in the UK, but the trend is now clearly positive. Expect to see more countries added to the ‘Green List’ quite soon.