Air France ups Nairobi seats

Air France will add seats on its Paris–Nairobi route this summer, switching to a larger Boeing 777-200 from May 15, 2026. (capitalfm.co.ke) The airline said the aircraft swap will replace the Airbus A350 now used on the route and lift seat capacity by 12 percent. Nairobi is one of the cities Air France singled out for extra capacity in its summer 2026 network plan. (capitalfm.co.ke) Air France published that summer 2026 plan on March 26, saying it expects to serve nearly 170 destinations in 73 countries, with long-haul capacity up 2 percent from summer 2025. The carrier also said it has been adding flights to Nairobi since the Middle East crisis began. (corporate.airfrance.com) The Nairobi route feeds into Paris Charles de Gaulle, Air France’s main hub, where the airline and its SkyTeam partners sell onward connections across Europe and North America. Capital Business reported the Nairobi service offers access to more than 300 destinations across the alliance network. (capitalfm.co.ke) Kenya is adding those seats after a record tourism year. The Tourism Research Institute said Kenya logged 2,394,376 international arrivals in 2024, up from 2,089,259 in 2023. (tri.go.ke) The same report said inbound tourism earnings reached 452.20 billion Kenyan shillings in 2024, up 19.79 percent from 377.49 billion Kenyan shillings in 2023. More long-haul seats into Nairobi give airlines more room to chase that demand. (tri.go.ke) Air France is also shifting aircraft and frequencies elsewhere as conflict and airspace restrictions reshape traffic flows. In the same summer schedule, it extended suspensions to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh while adding capacity to Asian destinations including Bangkok, Singapore, Delhi, Mumbai, Tokyo and Osaka. (corporate.airfrance.com) For Nairobi, the immediate change is simple: more seats from mid-May on one of Kenya’s main nonstop links to continental Europe. For travelers, that means a bigger aircraft on the Paris flight and more connection options beyond Charles de Gaulle. (capitalfm.co.ke)