Leading European carrier, Air France, is set to become the 15th scheduled international passenger airline servicing the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
The Paris-based airline will commence its non-stop service between Paris and Accra on Monday, February 28, 2017 and offer Ghanaian travelers thrice-weekly service thereafter.
Air France will operate its flights on Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays; departing Accra at 22:25 and arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris at 06:00am the next morning.
These flights will be operated by an Airbus A330 with a capacity of 208 seats until March 27, 2017 and then by a Boeing 777-200 with 312 seats and equipped with the latest new Air France travel cabins for the entire summer season.
The new service will offer travelers the convenience of connecting hundreds of flights to other cities Europe, the Americas and Asia.
The imminent entry of Air France into Ghana’s aviation space is expected to deepen competition and diversity in one of the fast growing economic sectors in the country.
Air France, headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance.
Air France’s hub at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, in the heart of Europe, is a genuine gateway to the rest of the world from Africa. About 6,500 Air France staff work at the facility, serving about 100,000 passengers every day and 25,000 weekly connecting passengers
Mr. Jean-Marc Janaillac, Air France-KLM Chairman and CEO told the B&FT in Paris that: “We are doing a new flight to Accra at the end of this month. I will be in Accra to see how we can expand.”
The Air France-KLM group is a partner of Nairobi-based Kenya Airways and Air Cote d’Ivoire.
Mr. Janaillac noted that: “We have two partners in Africa, Air Cote d”Ivoire in the West and Kenya Airways in the East. We also have a lot of links to Africa. Air France-KLM was the first airline link Africa to Europe. But we want to develop our flights within Africa through our two partners-Kenya Airways and Air Cote d’Ivoire. Africa is a key asset to our group.