On July 3, 2020, a new Air France flight connection was officially inaugurated in Kraków. The new line was opened with a water salute. The symbolic ribbon was ceremoniously cut by: Frédéric de Touchet, the Consulate General of France in Kraków, Frantisek Siling, the General Director of Air France, Radosław Włoszek, the President of Kraków Airport, Krzysztof Roehlich, the Manager of Welcome Airport Services in Kraków, and Julien Hallier, the Managing Director of Destination Poland.
Initially, flights on the Paris – Kraków – Paris route were operating 2 to 4 times a week, and after July 27 this year, the connection will be offered daily. The plane takes off from Charles de Gaulle airport at 9:15 to land at Kraków Airport at 11:20. Departure from Kraków is due at 12:30, whereas arrival in Paris is planned at 14:40 local time. The new flights numbered AF1878 and AF1879 will be operated by Airbus planes. Depending on the day, these will encompass types A318 to A321.
Safe and health protection measures during flights
- Obligation to cover faces by passengers and crew when boarding an aircraft and during the entire flight. Keeping distance while boarding and taking seats. Passengers must have their own protective masks for travel; it is also recommended to have one’s own disinfectant.
- Mandatory measurement of travellers’ body temperature before each Air France flight. Systematic checks are carried out using non-contact infrared thermometers.
- At airports, passenger services are carried out while keeping physically distance, and where possible, customer service desks are equipped with Plexiglas protective walls.
- Airplanes are thoroughly cleaned before each flight using appropriate strong agents. The procedure includes vacuuming all carpets, seats and head restraints, and cleaning all touch surfaces such as tables, armrests, monitors, remote controls, luggage compartments, shelves and toilets. Blankets are replaced after each flight and covered with a protective foil. Air France also applies an additional procedure for complete decontamination of aircraft interiors with a virucidal agent.
- On-board service and catering offer have been simplified to minimize contact between crew and passengers. For example, during less than 3 hour-flights (e.g. from Kraków to Paris), the service includes hot drinks and fruit juices, whereas small sweet and salty snacks are served in the business class.
- The air in Air France’s plane cabin is refreshed every 3 minutes. The ventilation system is equipped with special high-performance filters or HEPA filters, identical to those used in hospital operating rooms. These filters absorb virus particles even as small as 0.01 microns (coronavirus particles have a size of 0.08 to 0.16 microns).