Air France has added Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city, to its route network. According to AeroRoutes, it returns after a 28-year absence, after its 1 weekly 747 Combi service ended in 1995. Dar is its second destination in Tanzania, joining Zanzibar. Both illustrate Air France's growing tendency to add non-Francophone destinations.
Air France to Dar es Salaam
The SkyTeam airline will launch 3 weekly flights to Dar es Salaam on June 12th. It'll use 279-seat 787-9s, its second-smallest widebody after the A330-200. And unlike the A330-200, by far Air France's leading aircraft to sub-Saharan Africa, the 787-9 has more economy and fewer premium seats.
Dar es Salaam will be a triangular operation, tagged with Zanzibar, with Zanzibar-Dar just 45 miles (73km) apart. The routing and schedules are as follows, with all times local:
- Paris CDG-Zanzibar: AF876, 10:20-20:15
- Zanzibar-Dar es Salaam: AF876, 21:45-22:20
- Dar es Salaam-Paris CDG: AF876, 23:50-07:55+1
Air France launched Zanzibar in October 2021. It routed and continues to route Paris CDG-Zanzibar-Nairobi-Paris CDG 3 weekly. Adding Dar means that Nairobi, which Air France started in March 2018, will be de-tagged and fully nonstop in both directions. Currently, 4 flights are nonstop to Nairobi, and 3 are via Zanzibar.
Click here for Paris-Dar flights.
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It beats British Airways
Not surprisingly, booking data shows that the Paris-Dar roundtrip point-to-point market between January and September 2022 was a small ~8,500. It was barely 11,500 for the whole of 2019. It is because of a lack of colonial history with Tanzania, meaning Air France will primarily focus on transit passengers over CDG. It'll be the same as KLM over Amsterdam on its 1 daily Dar service and Turkish Airlines over Istanbul on its 1 daily operation.
In contrast, London, by far Dar's largest European market, remains without nonstop service, although British Airways served it until 2013 using 767-300ERs. With over 50,000 roundtrip P2P passengers in 2019, it was a five times larger local market than Paris and four times larger than Amsterdam. It remains reliant on one-stops over Amsterdam, Istanbul, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, the Middle East hubs – and soon Paris.
So many one-stop alternatives don't help the case for a London nonstop. Likewise, a relatively low average one-way fare of $325 in 2019 (excluding taxes and any fuel surcharge), especially compared to other opportunities for its widebodies. When spread over miles, Dar-Heathrow's fare per mile was $0.070, a third lower than long-served Nairobi-Heathrow.
Click here for Dar-Heathrow flights.
The 31st airport in sub-Saharan Africa
Adding Dar means that Air France's sub-Saharan passenger network rises to 31 airports next summer. Of European airlines, it is beaten only by Turkish Airlines' 39, helped by its strong use of narrowbodies and geographic position, especially to Central and Eastern Africa, and many one-stops. Notice from the table below just how far away from Air France most other major European carriers are:
|
Airline |
Airports served in sub-Saharan Africa: summer 2023 |
Destination list for passenger flights |
|---|---|---|
|
Turkish Airlines |
39 |
Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Antananarivo, Asmara, Bamako, Banjul, Cape Town, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti, Douala, Durban, Entebbe, Freetown, Johannesburg, Juba, Khartoum, Kigali, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Maputo, Mauritius, Mogadishu, Mombasa, Nairobi, N'Djamena, Niamey, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, Pointe Noire, Seychelles, Yaoundé, Zanzibar |
|
Air France |
31 |
Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Antananarivo, Bamako, Bangui, Banjul, Brazzaville, Conakry, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti, Douala, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Lomé, Malabo, Mauritius, Nairobi, N'Djamena, Niamey, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, Pointe Noire, Saint-Denis, Yaoundé, Zanzibar |
|
Brussels Airlines |
17 |
Abidjan, Accra, Banjul, Bujumbura, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar, Douala, Entebbe, Freetown, Kigali, Kinshasa, Lomé, Luanda, Monrovia, Ouagadougou, Zanzibar |
|
TAP Portugal |
12 |
Accra, Banjul, Bissau, Boa Vista, Conakry, Dakar, Luanda, Maputo, Praia, Sal, São Tomé, São Vicente |
|
KLM |
10 |
Accra, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Johannesburg, Kigali, Kilimanjaro, Lagos, Nairobi, Zanzibar |
|
Lufthansa |
8 |
Abuja, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Luanda, Malabo, Nairobi, Port Harcourt |
|
British Airways |
7 |
Abuja, Accra, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Mauritius, Nairobi |
Where would you like Air France to serve next in the sub-Sahara? Let us know in the comments.
-
Air France
- IATA/ICAO Code:
- AF/AFR
- Airline Type:
- Full Service Carrier
- Hub(s):
- Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport
- Year Founded:
- 1933
- Alliance:
- SkyTeam
- Airline Group:
- Air France-KLM
- CEO:
- Anne Rigail
- Country:
- France
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