Skyteam member Air France announced on Friday that it would be increasing its flight schedule for summer 2020 as well as gradually building up its destination-offering and flight-frequencies over the next few months, through to October. Sadly, service resumptions will not utilize the A380, which the airline has retired. Nonetheless, here's what the French flag carrier has planned.

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By the end of summer 2020, Air France plans to restore 85% of its 170 destinations. Photo: Air France

Schedule ramp-up

As more of the world opens up and border restrictions ease, Air France intends to rebuild its offerings in anticipation of more travelers taking to the skies. Thus, by September, it hopes to achieve 50% of its flight schedule, pushing it to 60% in October.

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Air France's domestic operations will see a shakeup following the union's vote. Photo: Getty Images

Additionally, the airline says that its domestic network will be restored to nearly full capacity flying out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. However, medium and long-haul routes and frequencies will slowly build over the coming weeks and months.

Flying out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle

As you can imagine, a large international carrier like Air France will have many, many destinations - 170 to be precise. Therefore, we can only cover so much detail about the airline's service resumptions in this article. For specific flight times, resumption dates, and frequencies, travelers can visit the airline's website.

Altogether, without specific details, the below destinations are what Air France is hoping to restore by September and October 2020 out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle:

  • Metropolitan France: Biarritz, Bordeaux, Brest, Clermont Ferrand, Lorient, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Mulhouse, Nantes, Nice, Pau, Rennes, Toulouse
  • French overseas departments & territories, Caribbean & Indian Ocean: Antananarivo, Havana, Mauritius, Papeete, Punta Cana, Santo Domingo, Saint Martin
  • Europe: Aberdeen, Alicante, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bari, Belgrade, Bergen, Berlin, Bilbao, Billund, Birmingham, Bologna, Bremen, Bucharest, Budapest, Cagliari, Catania, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin, Dubrovnik, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Erevan, Faro, Florence, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Heraklion, Ibiza, Istanbul, Kyiv, Krakow, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Naples, Newcastle, Nuremberg, Olbia, Oslo, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Prague, Rome, Saint Petersburg, Seville, Sofia, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Turin, Valencia, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Zagreb, Zurich
  • Middle East: Beirut, Dubai, Cairo
  • Africa: Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Algiers, Bamako, Bangui, Brazzaville, Casablanca, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar, Djibouti, Douala, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, Lomé, Luanda, Malabo, Marrakech, Nairobi, Niamey, N’Djamena, Nouakchott, Ouagadougou, Oran, Pointe-Noire, Rabat, Tunis, Yaoundé
  • North America: Atlanta, Boston, Cancun, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Houston, Mexico, Miami, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington
  • South America: Bogota, Buenos Aires, Fortaleza, Lima, Panama City, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, San Jose, Sao Paulo
  • Asia: Bangalore, Bangkok, Bombay (Mumbai), Delhi, Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Ho Chi Min City
Air France Airbus A320
The French Government has urged Air France to remain a good customer of Airbus. Photo: Getty Images

Flying out of Paris-Orly

Moreover, the below destinations are what Air France is hoping to restore by September and October 2020 out of Paris-Orly:

  • Metropolitan France and Corsica: Ajaccio, Bastia, Biarritz, Brest, Calvi, Figari, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice, Pau, Perpignan, Toulon, Toulouse
  • North America: New York
  • French overseas departments & territories, Caribbean & Indian Ocean: Cayenne, Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, Saint-Denis de la Réunion
Paris Orly Airport
Paris Orly is the smaller of Paris's two main airports and a secondary hub for Air France. Photo: Olivier CABARET via Flickr 

Subject to change

Altogether, Air France has made it clear that its plans for service restoration will depend largely on government authorization and the lifting of travel restrictions. As a result, the schedule is likely to be updated periodically as the situation changes.

Updating flight schedules, of course, will result in flight cancelations - something that all travelers should keep in mind and plan for. Passengers are also requested to stay up to date with travel requirements of their destinations and transit countries.

However, Air France will enable customers to postpone their trip free of charge. Alternatively, passengers can cancel their flight bookings to receive a bonus voucher or ticket refund.

Will you be flying with Air France in the near future? Share your travel plans (or aspirations) with us in the comments!