Air France has announced Québec City, with the new route beginning in May. Flights are on sale and Air France will be the only European airline to serve the airport. While it'll have head-to-head competition, the French flag carrier will be the only airline to use widebodies.

Air France adds a fourth route to Canada

Air France will begin the 3,298-mile (5,308km) link across the North Atlantic to the capital of Québec province on May 17th. It continues the theme of leisure and visiting friends and family markets that have been so dominant since the pandemic struck. It'll operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays during the summer with the following schedule (all times are local):

  • AF352: Paris CDG to Québec City, 13:10-14:40
  • AF353: Québec City to Paris CDG, 17:00-05:45+1 (the next day)

The route will use 224-seat A330-200s, Air France's lowest-capacity widebody. The type has 36 fully-flat seats in business, 21 in premium, and 167 in economy. The A330 received a full retrofit in 2019. Interestingly, the twinjet has one of Air France's largest business cabins, beaten only by one B777-300ER configuration.

Air France to Canada
Québec City (YQB) will join Air France's existing routes to Montréal (YUL), Toronto (YYZ), and Vancouver (YVR). In mid-July, YUL is four-daily, YYZ twice-daily, YVR once-daily, and YQB three-weekly. Image: GCMap.

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It will compete directly with Air Transat

Air France's introduction will double peak summer flights to Paris to six-weekly, the highest number ever, based on examining schedules available via Cirium. It'll compete head-to-head with Air Transat.

Air Transat will resume the route on April 10th. While initially operating to France on Sundays, it'll double to twice-weekly in May (Mondays and Tuesdays), and rise to thrice-weekly in June (Monday, Tuesdays, Fridays). It'll end on October 25th. While it historically used the A310 and A330, it'll now use the A321LR, with the following schedule in July (all times are local):

  • TS116: Québec City to Paris CDG, 20:10-08:40+1 (the next day)
  • TS117: Paris CDG to Québec City, 10:25-11:55
Air Transat A321LR
The Canadian leisure carrier has resumed most of its pre-pandemic network. Photo: Air Transat

The Québec City to Paris market

Air Transat has served the market for many years and was joined by Corsair from Orly from 2008 to 2010. Between 2011 and 2020, Air Transat was the only operator, according to Cirium data. Thanks to a year-round service and near-equal use of the A330 and A310, it was solely responsible for the highest volume of seats thus far (in 2012).

Paris to Québec City_ how has it changed_ (2)
It has been a decade since the market had so many seats for sale. Source of data: Cirium.

It comes soon after Air Transat added London

Air France's announcement comes soon after Air Transat revealed Québec City to London Gatwick. It was to run from May 22nd until September 28th, but it'll now operate once-weekly from May 11th to September 28th. London is Québec City's second-largest European market, although it is obviously significantly smaller than Paris.

What do you make of Air France's new route? Let us know in the comments.