Air France's new L'Espace Affaires (business class) seating is now available on 39 key long distance routes. The new seats, which are lie-flat style (rather than the fully lie-flat beds offered by British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand) are 54 cms (21 ins) wide and feature 155 cm (61 ins) of legroom. They are currently found on all Air France's B777-300s and are being installed on the carrier's B747s and Airbuses.
At the present time, the new business class product is fitted to these plane types operating over the following business routes:
North America
New York – Newark (A340-300) , Philadelphia (A330-200), Chicago (A340-300), Detroit (A330-200), Miami (B747-400), Boston (A340-300) , San Francisco (B747-400) and Toronto (A340-300). Note that the new seats are not yet available on flights bound to or from New York (JFK).
Asia
Singapore (B777-300) , Osaka (B777-300), Bangkok (A340-300), Hanoi (A340-300), Ho Chi Minh (A340-300) and Hong Kong (B777-300).
Latin America
Rio de Janeiro (B747-400), Bogota (A340-300), Caracas (B747-400) and Havana (B747-400).
Africa and the Middle East
Luanda (B777-300), Conakry (A330-200) , Niamey (A340-300), Ouagadougou (A330-200), Cotonou (A340-300), Douala (A340-300), Yaounde (A340-300), Kinshasa (A330-200), Lome (A330-200), Tehran (A330-200), Jeddah (A330-200) and Djibouti (A330-200).
To read Tom Otley's review of Air France's business class offering, click on the seat image.
In other news Air France says it will offer 11% more seats to Asia this summer with a significant increase in flights to mainland China. In conjunction with partner KLM from Amsterdam, Air France will add Chengdu, a fifth destination in China, and will increase flights to Beijing. There will also be more flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong. In addition there will be extra flights to Dubai, Tehran and (subject to government approval) Riyadh.
For more information go to www.airfrance.co.uk
Report by Alex McWhirter