Cork says ‘bonjour’ as Air France reveals Paris flights

Air France’s new daily flight from Cork to Paris will open up a vast long-haul network to Irish passengers and boost inbound tourist numbers to the south.

Cork’s business and tourism chiefs welcomed yesterday’s announcement, one of three European summer routes unveiled by the airline.

It also unveiled routes to Wroclaw in Poland and Bergen in Norway. It already operates 28 weekly flights to Dublin.

The service from Cork to Paris-Charles de Gaulle will be operated by Air France Hop! from May 26 until October 27 using a 76-passenger capacity Embraer 170 aircraft. Fares start from €129 return in economy, including all taxes.

The service will add 33,750 seats to Cork Airport’s capacity and provide outbound passengers with access to Air France’s extensive network of over 180 destinations worldwide from Charles de Gaulle.

Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy said the new route would be a huge boost for passengers seeking to travel to France and beyond.

“By flying out of Cork Airport with Air France, travellers will have easy access to many long-haul destinations from Paris-Charles de Gaulle, such as Brazil, Mauritius, Mexico, and Algeria, as well as easy short-haul connections to Nice, Brussels, Rome, and Lisbon,” he said.

Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the new route was also good news for tourism to Cork and the South.

“We already work very closely with Air France and we look forward to co-operating with them to maximise the promotion of this new service from Paris,” he said.

“As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated — they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism.”

Benedicte Duval, the general manager of Air France-KLM UK and Ireland, said the airline was delighted to announce the new routes.

The flight, lasting one hour 50 minutes, will depart Cork Airport daily at 4.30pm and arrive at Paris at 7.20pm local time. The return leg departs Paris at 2.55pm local time and arrives at Cork at 3.50pm.