Air France is to drop its daily flights from London Heathrow to Los Angeles from the end of October, just seven months after the route was launched.
The transatlantic route was introduced in March this year following the Open Skies agreement, but Air France says it will be removed from the 2008-09 winter schedule, as part of the “optimisation of the Skyteam transatlantic network on departure from London Heathrow”.
The carrier says the aircraft and slot made available by this move will be used to launch a daily flight from Heathrow to New York JFK, although not until the summer 2009 schedule. This will increase Skyteam’s offering on the route to three flights per day, with Delta already plying the route twice-daily. Current Skyteam member Continental serves Heathrow from New York Newark, although the carrier will be defecting to rivals Star Alliance next year (see online news June 20).
Air France says it will automatically rebook all passengers due to travel from London to LA between November 6-30, December 19-21 and January 1-6, 2009, on to flights via Paris CDG for the same dates and in the same booking class. For
those travelling outside these dates passengers will need to contact their
travel agent or the Air France UK call centre. If passengers wish to cancel they can
get a full refund.
For more information visit airfrance.co.uk.
Report by Mark Caswell
