Air France has restored its direct connection to the Philippines by resuming flights between Paris and Manila for the first time in two decades. The inaugural flight on the relaunched route from the French flag carrier’s hub at Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Ninoy Aquino International (MNL) operated over the weekend, and was welcomed by a sizeable delegation at its destination in the Philippines.
The route in a nutshell
As detailed by a statement published by Air France when it announced the route’s resumption earlier in the year, the SkyTeam member will operate direct non-stop flights between Paris and Manila on a thrice-weekly basis. Flying out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, and returning on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, these services will be operated by Air France’s three-class Airbus
A350-900s.
The configuration used has 34 business class flatbeds, alongside 24 premium economy recliners and 266 economy class seats, making for a total capacity of 324 passengers. Timings-wise, the flights operate in both directions, with AF208 scheduled to depart Paris CDG at 23:20 local time. Its arrival into Manila is timed for 19:30 the next day, giving a planned block time of 13 hours and 10 minutes.
Photo: Dario Duque Gomez | Shutterstock
The aircraft only has a couple of hours on the ground in the Philippines, with the return flight, which is numbered as AF209, scheduled to depart Manila at 21:50 local time. With a scheduled duration of exactly 15 hours, its arrival back into the French capital takes place at 05:50 the following morning. The days on which Air France
operates the route line up well with its group partner KLM, as the carrier explains:
“Manila is also a KLM destination, with 4 flights a week from Amsterdam Schiphol airport, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. By coordinating their respective flight schedules, Air France and KLM ensure a combined daily service to Manila.”
A warm welcome after 20 years away
According to AeroTime, Air France’s return to the route marked the end of a two-decade operational hiatus, with the French flag carrier having last served Manila in 2004. Its decision to withdraw the route at the time came about after the merger that formed the wider Air France-KLM group, with the airline opting to cease serving the corridor in favor of a codeshare deal on KLM’s flights to Manila.
In any case, the French national airline’s return to the Philippines provoked considerable excitement, and the inaugural flight on the relaunched route was met by a sizeable delegation. This included Marie Fontanel, the French Ambassador to the Philippines and Micronesia, as well as Jaime Bautista, who serves as the Philippines’ Department of Transportation Secretary, among others.
The gathered officials weren’t kept waiting, as the flight arrived punctually. Indeed, despite tracking data from Flightradar24 showing that it left Paris a little late at 23:44 local time, its arrival in Manila came a minute ahead of schedule, at 19:29. As for the inaugural return flight, This departed 41 minutes late at 22:31, but managed to make up most of the time en route, landing just 10 minutes down at 06:00.
Manila has relatively minimal European connections
Present scheduling data made available by Cirium shows that, all in all, Air France will operate 11 flights in each direction between Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport
and Manila this month. As previously mentioned, these will operate on the days not served by KLM’s four weekly flights from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) to Ninoy Aquino International, with 16 rotations planned for the month of December.
Photo: Ryken Papy | Shutterstock
Interestingly, however, while these flights are direct, they are not non-stop, as they call in at Taiwan’s Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) en route. The only other carrier offering direct flights between Europe and Manila this month is Turkish Airlines, with the Star Alliance member flying there 48 times from its hub at Istanbul Airport (IST). Of these, 17 continue to Mactan Cebu Airport (CEB).
