Air France will outflank Lufthansa (see online news, April 15) to become the first airline to provide an Airbus A380 service between Europe and Shanghai.
A Paris to Shanghai route, set to launch in September, was formally agreed during a meeting between President Francois Hollande and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bejing this week.
The wide-bodied aircraft will leave Charles De Gaulle airport three times each week at 2320, arriving in China the following day at 1620 local time.
Its return schedule is more unusual, being overnight, leaving Shanghai at 2320 and landing in Paris at 0535 the next morning.
However, an advantage of an early morning arrival into Charles De Gaulle is that passengers then have all day to make connections throughout Europe and Africa.
At the same time, Air France will cancel its Charles De Gaulle to Singapore A380 service.
There are currently up to two Air France flights between Paris and Shanghai each day.
The sole Chinese airline to operate the A380 is China Southern. Based in Guangzhou, the only international route for which the carrier rosters the A380 is Guangzhou to Los Angeles International Airport.
China Eastern controls prime international routes from Shanghai and, currently, it has no plans to acquire any A380s.
It also emerged today that China has placed an order for 60 Airbus planes from France, in a deal worth $8 billion at list prices (see online news, April 26).
The agreement, for 18 A330 wide-bodied aircraft and 42 A320s, was signed by Mr Xi and Mr Hollande.
Air France was unavailable for comment as Business Traveller went to press.
For more information, visit airfrance.co.uk.
Report by Graham Smith and Alex McWhirter