Air France: An increasing number of flights to the African continent
18-Jan-2011 Present in Africa for close to 75 years, Air France and KLM continue to improve their offer in this region of the world.
Thanks to its African partners, the Group can offer its customers an increasingly expanded network with new destinations, additional frequencies and even more direct flights to and from the Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol hubs.
A constantly improved flight offer and frequencies
This winter, the Air France KLM Group is increasing capacity by 3.5% compared with winter 2009 thanks to the addition of 2 new destinations to its network:
- Kigali, in Rwanda: served 5 times weekly by KLM
- Bata*, in Equatorial Guinea: served twice weekly by Air France
The Air France KLM Group is also increasing its frequencies to Pointe Noire (Congo), Libreville** (Gabon), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), Dar Es Salaam and Kilimandjaro (Tanzania).
This summer, Air France will serve 3 new destinations :
- Freetown, in Sierra Leone: 2 weekly flights
- Monrovia, in Liberia: 3 weekly flights
- Tripoli, in Libya: 5 weekly flights, in addition to the daily flights operated by KLM
Air France will also be increasing its number of flights to Pointe Noire (Republic of Congo) with 5 weekly flights and Libreville** (Gabon) with 5 weekly flights.
KLM is also increasing its frequencies to serve Dar Es Salaam and Kilimandjaro (Tanzania) as well as Tripoli (Libya) with daily flights; Abuja/Kano (Nigeria) with 4 weekly flights and Entebbe/Kigali (Rwanda) with 6 weekly flights.
An enhanced flight offer thanks to partnership agreements with African carriers
In order to offer its customers a network encompassing 43 African destinations, Air France KLM relies on its partners:
- Kenya Airways, and notably connects Mombasa to the rest of the world via Amsterdam. Five destinations complete the network: Bujumbura (Burundi), Kisumu (Kenya), Lilongwe (Malawi), Lusaka (Zambia), Mombasa (Kenya).
- TAAG Angola Airlines: in 2010, 2 weekly flights connect Luanda to Paris.
- Comair: KLM operates flights out of Durban and Port Elisabeth (South Africa) to Amsterdam via Johannesburg
Air France and KLM customers travelling on African routes
- The average age of passengers is 44,
- 70% of passengers are men, 30% are women,
- 38% of customers are French, 29% African, 22% European, 9% American and 2% Asian
- 60% of customers travel on business, irrespective of their travel class,
- The customers residing in Africa are mainly business people, entrepreneurs or working for SMEs,
- 75% of customers departing from African destinations are travelling to France or Europe
*subject to Equatorial Guinean authorities' validation of airport infrastructure
**subject to obtaining traffic rights from the Gabonese authorities