A few hours ago, a scheduled Air France flight from Paris landed in Newark for the first time since 2012. Air France and the Port Authority New York-New Jersey held a gate ceremony in Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport to commemorate the historic occasion.

AFR062

At 14:22 local time, Air France flight 62 landed at EWR after a seven-hour and thirty-six-minute journey from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. Today’s flight marked the first time a scheduled Air France flight from Paris touched down in Newark since 2012. The aircraft used on the flight was a 22-year-old Boeing 777-200ER, tail number F-GSPK.

Route schedule

Cirium’s schedule data shows Air France has 40 flights in both directions between Newark and Paris in December. All flights in December will be on the airline’s Boeing 777-200 and -200ER aircraft. Flights on the new route will increase in January and will be divided between the 777s and the 787-9. Air France’s operations will peak on the route from April through September 2023, between 60-62 monthly flights.

At the gate

The event featured Eric Caron, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Air France, James Gill, General Manager, Newark Liberty International Airport, Jérémie Robert, Consul General of France in New York, and other airport and airline leadership.

Passengers were offered refreshments of cupcakes and cake, a selection of soft drinks, and pens and bag tags.

Why EWR, and why now?

Simple Flying spoke with Air France’s Eric Caron, Senior Vice President And General Manager, who mentioned that a few factors drove the airline to return to Newark. Passengers living in New Jersey have a long commute across state lines into New York and John F. Kennedy International Airport, sometimes two hours or longer. A two-hour commute to an airport may be typical for many in the United States, but not for those with a major airport in their home city.

A driving factor for the re-launch of the route was the connection rate of Air France’s passengers to India. Caron stated that 25% of the airline’s bookings between New York City and Paris went to India. Caron added that there is extreme potential in New York/New Jersey. Every year the airline analyzes potential for growth and new gateways, and relaunching flights to Newark was an easy decision to make.

According to Caron, the decision to launch flights from Newark was not influenced by the difficulties in acquiring new slots at JFK. Acquiring slots in Newark proved difficult for Air France, which made its first request to fly to Newark in 2021. Caron emphasized that markets from JFK and EWR were different and that the airline was thrilled at the relaunch of Newark flights.

New American destinations?

When asked about potential new markets and routes in the United States, Caron said that nothing specific could be stated but that the airline is continuously evaluating the potential for growth and industry demands.

“And to give you an example, we see that Texas is booming from a demand perspective. We (Air France-KLM) just opened Austin to Amsterdam, and we reopened Dallas Fort Worth to Paris. Now we have three gateways in Texas with Austin, Dallas, and Houston. And so that's the type of analysis that we conduct with our network planning team in the head office. So, of course, they are some opportunities for new gateways in the future.”

Caron did give Simple Flying one hint about what Air France is considering for new routes in the United States. Without being more specific, he shared that the airline is looking at the West Coast.

What about competition?

Simple Flying asked about Air France facing competition from carriers like Norse and JetBlue on its routes from Paris to JFK and EWR. Caron stated that though new airlines are announcing services connecting the two major cities, the airline faces less competition than it did in 2019 when airlines like Norwegian paired the two.

• 

  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

  Region:

  Europe

• 

  Newark Liberty International Airport

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  EWR/KEWR

  Country:

  United States

  CEO:

  James Gill

  Passenger Count :

  15,892,892 (2020)

  Runways :

  4L/22R - 3,353m (11,000 ft) | 4R/22L - 3,048m (10,000 ft) | 11/29 - 2,050m (6,726 ft)

  Terminals:

  Terminal A | Terminal B | Terminal C