Air France To Fly To KLIA in April 2013

After some 20years missing in action, Air France will start flying to Kuala Lumpur from the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France on April 22 next year, with an initial schedule of three weekly departures.

In a statement today, Air France said it will be mounting a B777-200, which has a seat capacity of 247, on the new route.

In Asia, Kuala Lumpur will be the 15th destination served by Air France. This new service is in addition to the 205 weekly flights operated between Paris, Amsterdam and Asia by Air France and KLM.

This flight complements the flight offering between Malaysia and Europe, with the daily flight already operated by KLM from Kuala Lumpur.

In combination with KLM flights, Air France-KLM Group offers 17 weekly flights from Malaysia to Europe; seven of them with KLM codeshare partner Malaysia Airlines from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam.

Air France-KLM country manager for Malaysia, Estee Ng, said ticket booking will open on Nov 9 2012.

"With 110,000 French tourists visiting Malaysia last year and the strong trade relations with France, it is a growing market and there is a tremendous potential for Air France-KLM to use it as a tactical location for our presence in Southeast Asia.

"Customers wishing to travel to Indonesia from Europe will also benefit from connecting opportunities to Jakarta offered by KLM," she added.

Air France-KLM is a result of a merger between Air France and KLM in 2004.

So which airlines will be seeing in the near future in KLIA? With Malaysia Airlines System joining One World Alliances, hopefully British Airways next?