Joint venture partners, Delta Air Lines and Air France have announced that they will offer a year-round nonstop service between Nice Côte d’Azur Airport and New York’s JFK.
The service will be operated by Delta in conjunction with Air France and will continue four-times-weekly throughout the winter season. Previously the service ran for 10 months each year, with a temporary stop between the end of January and the start of the summer season in March.
Delta will operate the route with a 245-seat Boeing 767-400 aircraft through to December 2015, and a 210-seat Boeing 767-300 aircraft from January to March 2016.
“We have transported more than two million passengers between Nice and the United States since 1991 and are delighted to respond to customer demand by extending this popular flight throughout the winter,” said Perry Cantarutti, Delta’s Senior Vice President Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“Around 20 percent of passengers are flying to Nice on business and a year-round service will help support local industry both here and in the surrounding region,” he added.
The Nice-New York flight supports a number of high-profile events in the Côte d’Azur region, including the Cannes Film Festival, of which Air France is an official airlines, and the Monaco Grand Prix, as well as the Nice Jazz Festival.
The leading airline group in Nice, Air France-KLM, in cooperation with Delta, is reaffirming its leadership in the region in a sustainable manner. Highly committed to promoting France abroad, especially Nice, Air France KLM and its partner Delta carried 120,000 American passengers to and from Nice in 2014, representing 320 per day,” said Patrick Alexandre, EVP Commercial, Sales and Alliances at Air France-KLM said.
As part of the joint venture with Delta, Air France-KLM and Alitalia, more than 250 daily trans-Atlantic flights operated by the four airline partners, with a fleet of 129 aircraft. The joint venture represents nearly a 25 percent total of trans-Atlantic capacity.