Air France becomes 15th airline to join RDU
Air France will become the 15th airline at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) when it launches direct flights to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) in October.
The airline will connect the Research Triangle to the City of Light when it takes over Paris service as part of its partnership with Delta Air Lines, which currently flies the route.
"We welcome the arrival of Air France and the opportunities it provides to connect more travelers from our region with Paris and destinations in Europe, India and beyond," said Michael Landguth, president and CEO of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority.
The Paris service is timed to provide ideal connections from CDG to Air France’s network of nearly 200 destinations and 89 countries.
Air France is scheduled to take over service to Paris from Delta Air Lines on Oct. 30. Air France will fly every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on a 279-seat Boeing 787.
The 787 is a larger aircraft that has not previously flown from RDU and has more seats than the plane currently flying the Paris route.
"People have more choices than they've ever had when they're flying out of RDU," said RDU director of media relations Stephanie Hawco.
Currently, RDU operates daily to France during peak summertime travel season. However, RDU has traditionally scales back to four days per week to France when the peak travel season ramps down.
"We are thrilled to begin operating the direct route from North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport," said Eric Caron, general manager for North America, Air France-KLM. "The route will be Air France’s 14th gateway this winter in the United States, providing even more connectivity and ease of access between the transatlantic market. Whether the final destination is Paris or going beyond through Air France’s wide global network, we look forward to welcoming travelers on board soon."
RDU now serves a record seven international destinations, including Cancun, Freeport, London, Montreal, Reykjavik and Toronto.
In the past year and a half, RDU has added five airlines. It includes Air France.
"That's really cool," traveler Roo Mazza said. "It's good to have airports to go anywhere you want."
Total number of travelers through RDU:
- 2019: 14.2 million
- 2020: 4.9 million
- 2021: 8.8 million
- 2022: 11.8 million
"For a while, were talking about being in a recovery, but we really feel like we're back now, in terms of passenger traffic.
After the COVID-19 slump felt throughout the aviation industry, 2023 is on pace to beat 2019’s record.
Through May 2023, 5.4 million passengers flew to or from RDU.That’s more than 100,000 more passengers compared to that same time frame in 2019.
"We're hoping we can potentially break that record we set back in 2019," Hawco said.
Traveler Viola Lanier said frequently travels to RDU from Atlanta.
"The airport experience is important," Lanier said.
Hawco said she expects the airport experience to also improve.
"We'll be expanding things like security checkpoints, terminals and more gates," she said.
Hawco said there’s potential for more airlines to join this list.
"We're actually one of the fastest-growing airports in the U.S.," Hawco said. "We really attract a lot of interest from airlines."
