FRANCE. Air France is boosting its flights to Asia by +34% this summer with overall capacity on its routes up +9%.
The company said in a statement: “The buoyant economic climate on the Asian continent has prompted Air France to expand capacity significantly in the region: up +34% compared with the service last summer, or up +10% over the schedule initially announced before the breakout of SARS.”
The company was forced to scrap flights and revise its summer schedule last year as the war in Iraq and the SARS virus depressed demand for international air travel.
Air France will increase flights to Beijing, Manila, Vietnam, India and Tokyo.
Air France said it would also launch seven new routes – to Canton (Guangzhou), Tehran, Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo, Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait City, Doha in Qatar and Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
Capacity on flights to North America would be flat, while the company had increased flights to the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The summer schedule starts on 28 March.
