Air France adds Nairobi seats

Air France will add seats on its Paris-Nairobi route from May 15, swapping in a larger Boeing 777-200 for the Airbus A350. (corporate.airfrance.com, capitalfm.co.ke) The aircraft change lifts seat capacity on the route by 12%, according to Capital Business, as Air France adjusts its 2026 summer network for stronger long-haul demand. (capitalfm.co.ke) Air France said on March 26 that it was adding extra flights to several Asian destinations “as well as to Nairobi in Kenya” and that its long-haul capacity for summer 2026 will rise 2% from summer 2025. (corporate.airfrance.com) Nairobi matters to Air France because the route feeds Paris-Charles de Gaulle, the airline’s main hub, where the carrier says it will serve close to 170 destinations in 73 countries this summer. Capital Business said the Nairobi flight connects onward into more than 300 destinations across the SkyTeam network. (corporate.airfrance.com, capitalfm.co.ke) The route is also part of a longer buildout. Air France launched its own Paris-Nairobi service on March 25, 2018, with three weekly Boeing 787 flights, adding to Kenya Airways service on the same city pair. (corporate.airfrance.com) At launch in 2018, Air France said the combined Air France and Kenya Airways offering gave travelers 10 weekly nonstop flights between Paris and Nairobi, plus code-share access beyond Nairobi to 23 regional destinations. (corporate.airfrance.com) Kenya’s tourism officials have spent the past year pushing the same connectivity argument. In October 2025, the Kenya Tourism Board said new international flights were a “major boost” to access, and Tourism Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano said added air links place Kenya closer to global tourism and trade flows. (ktb.go.ke) Nairobi’s airport is already Kenya’s main international gateway. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport handled 9,067,400 passengers in 2024, according to traffic figures cited on its public record page. (wikipedia.org) For travelers, the immediate change is simple: more seats between Nairobi and Paris starting May 15, with Air France using a bigger jet on a route it has now flown for eight years. (capitalfm.co.ke, corporate.airfrance.com)