Air France revamps Paris hub schedules for better flight connections; adds more nonstop flights, concentrates connecting flight banks.

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 1996--Air France announced that effective March 31, it will launch a new scheduling plan at its Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport hub to better meet the diversified demands of the traveling public. The new program features more schdules with minimum connecting times of as little as 45 minutes. Flights are grouped around five connecting banks instead of the previous eight, thus reducing the amount of waiting time between connections.

On its long-haul network, linking CDG with North and South America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Air France increases the number of departures by 8.5 percent to over 600 a week compared with last summer. Flights serving the medium-haul network, 54 destinations in Europe, now total 2,600 departures a week, up 6 percent compared with the summer of '95.

Between the United State and Paris, the Concorde now departs from JFK at 8 a.m. instead of 1 p.m., arriving CDG at 5:45 p.m. instead of 10:45 p.m. This new schedule allows same-day connections to 8 cities in France and 30 cities elsewhere in Europe. In addition, Houston now has daily flights -- all eight Air France gateways in the United States now have service one or more times daily this summer -- and the Newark-Paris flight that formerly served Orly Airport now serves CDG, as do all other U.S. flights.

Air France reopens routes to two destinations on its long-haul network: Maputo (Mozambique) and Entebbe (Uganda), while suspending service to Dar Es Salaam and Kilimanjaro (both in Tanzania), and Lusaka (Zambia). And more long-haul destinations already on the network are now served on a daily basis, such as Cairo and Abidjan. The Air France long-term objectives is to serve as many destinations as possible with daily flights, thus giving customers the widest choice of departure dates.

On the European network, 38 destinations are now linked to Paris several times daily, and 8 destinations by one daily flight, meaning that 90 percent of the European network will be served at least daily. Since last summer, service has been suspended at Ankara, Pisa and Verona. Within France, service between Paris and both Lyon and Nice has been increased to improve connection possibilities.

Finally, in preparation for full deregulation of European routes next year, the Air France subsidiary Air Inter is now known as Air Inter Europe and certain routes formerly operated by Air France have been transferred to it. Air Inter Europe operates Paris-CDG to Lisbon and Paris-Orly to London-Heathrow, as well as flights linking London-Heathrow with Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and Strasbourg. Air Inter Europe already serves Shannon, Dublin, Oporto and other European points.

CONTACT: Air France, New York 

Bruce Haxthausen, 212/830-4482 (Media)