Air France | News, deals and offers from Air France

Chocolates, always a hit with everyone, are a must during the festive season; Air France will be offering over 200,000 chocolates to its passengers during the festive period, with over 100,000 chocolates offered on the short-haul network alone.

Air France announced that it is moving forward with its plan to further develop the Canadian market, with the addition of a fourth departure from Montreal to Paris Charles de Gaulle effective the summer of 2009.

Starting on 19 January 2009, Air France will be expanding services to Switzerland by offering a new destination, Bern, with 2 daily flights from Monday to Friday and 1 flight on Saturday and Sunday.

To mark its 75th anniversary, Air France has repainted one of its Airbus A320s in the same livery as back in 1946. Ambassador of the Company’s 75th anniversary, this plane, the F-GFKJ, will join the medium-haul fleet for the next two years. The aircraft has been baptised “Pays de Roissy”, as a reference to the association aiming to expand the economic develop of 110 communes situated around Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

SkyTeam, the global airline alliance, has announced the launch of the SkyTeam Mileage Upgrades program. SkyTeam Frequent Flyers on international flight itineraries can now use their miles to upgrade to Business class on most SkyTeam member airlines.

On Monday 24 November 2008, Air France launched a new online service enabling customers living in France to purchase a selection of wines from its renowned collection. Wine served on board Air France flights, chosen by Olivier Poussier, Air France’s wine advisor and world’s best sommelier in 2000, are among the best from France’s various wine-growing regions.

On Saturday 22 November 2008, the new H6 hangar at Paris-Charles de Gaulle welcomed the first Airbus A380 from Toulouse. This new hangar has been specifically designed for maintenance of Airbus A380 aircraft in the Air France fleet.

Air France customers travelling in economy class on long-haul flights can now reserve seats that offer more legroom thanks to their specific position in the cabin*. These seats may be reserved only when checking in online, from 30 hours before the scheduled flight departure and up to the latest check-in time, on payment of a 50 euro supplement.

From November 7, Air France and KLM have jointly launched bluenity.com, the first social network website for all air travellers. Signing up with bluenity.com will enable travellers to share their top tips for hotels, restaurants and shopping anywhere in the world.

Manoj R K Ujoodha,G.O.S.K., Chairman of Air Mauritius and Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Chairman and CEO of Air France, have signed a new agreement in Port-Louis for an initial five-year period aimed at strengthening the partnership between the two airlines.

Taking into account fuel price decreases, Air France and KLM are decreasing their fuel surcharge by 2 euros on domestic flights, 3 euros on medium haul flights and 15 euros on long haul flights and very long haul flights.

Starting on 8 October 2008, it will be possible to book flights for children under 12 years of age travelling alone, on airfrance.com. Air France is the first airline to offer the possibility of online reservations for these passengers on all its flights and on those of its franchised airlines.

On 25 September 2008, Air France KLM signed a charter on biofuels with eight other airline majors including KLM, the aircraft manufacturer Boeing and Universal Oil Products (UOP), a specialist in the development of biofuel technology.

The World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) has just awarded Air France the prize for the best single achievement in 2008 in Los Angeles. This prestigious prize recompenses the performance achieved by Air France in terms of inflight entertainment over the last 12 months.

Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic), the world leader in state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment (IFE) and communication systems, today announced an agreement with Air France - KLM, the largest airline consortium, in terms of operating revenue, in the world.

As the price of fuel has dropped over a significant period, Air France has withdrawn its recent fuel surcharge in accordance with its previously stated commitments.

Air France KLM has been named ‘Super Sector Leader’ for sustainability, in the wider travel and leisure sector for 2008, and for the fourth year running leader in its sector by both Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes - DJSI World and DJSI STOXX.

Pierre Graff, Chairman and CEO of Aéroports de Paris and Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Chairman and CEO of Air France-KLM today inaugurated the new terminal 2G at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, in the presence of Christine Lagarde, Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment.

On 13 and 15 September 2008, Air France will be transporting Pope Benedict XVI to Lourdes and will also be flying him home to Rome. Following on from Jean-Paul II, Benedict XVI is the second Pope Air France has had the honour of welcoming aboard its aircraft.

As from yesterday, Air France has launched electronic boarding passes on mobile phones. The only paper document needed to board is personal ID. This new paper-free service will initially concern passengers travelling on the 15 daily flights connecting Paris-CDG (terminal 2F1) to Amsterdam-Schiphol, in both directions.

Air France confirms that one of its Boeing 747-400 arriving from Paris had an incident at Montreal-Trudeau yesterday afternoon. After its landing, it came to a standstill with its nose wheel slightly outside the runway. The aircraft had left Paris-CDG at 4:56 pm (Paris time) and landed in Montreal at 5:44 pm, local time.

Produced in collaboration with BETC and the music labels “Village Vert” and “Green United Music”, Air France’s latest musical offering, the “In The Air” album is the next step in the brand’s musical journey. The compilation conjures sounds of well-being and serenity – a trademark of the brand soundtrack established 10 years ago.

For several weeks now, passengers travelling on Air France long-haul flights* can keep up with the latest sports news with the daily 10-minute news bulletin screened on board and produced for Air France by L’Equipe TV, the leading French non-stop, round-the-clock sports news channel.

Due to the high level of fuel prices, Air France is increasing its fuel surcharge by 2 euros per segment on domestic flights, by 4 euros per segment on medium-haul flights, by 10 euros per segment on long-haul flights and by 14 euros per segment on very long-haul flights. This increase is valid on tickets for trips from France, issued as from 10th July 2008.

Delivering the most innovative customer relations solutions on the web, Air France has adopted a unique new communication and distribution channel, the video widget. The widget, developed by French start-up Djingle, was a hit from the word go, immediately winning a prestigious Travolution Award in London.