French national carrier Air France will inaugurate thrice weekly flights from Paris to Wuhan, China, next April.

The airline will use a Boeing 777-200ER which offers 35 Business Class seats, 24 "Premium Voyageur" seats and 250 Economy Class seats. The flight will run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, departing Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 4:20 p.m. and landing at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 8:55 a.m. the following day.

Wuhan City, capital of Hubei province, has 9 million inhabitants. The city houses several industries and international companies. At present, about 39,000 overseas and domestic passengers are demanding for a direct link between Europe and Wuhan. Launching a direct flight to Wuhan, Air France expects to make the market bigger.

France has the strongest demand for air travel to Wuhan with a record of an estimated 11,000 passengers who travelled between Paris and Wuhan last year. Majority of these passengers fly with Air China via Beijing, China Eastern via Shanghai, China Southern Airlines via Guangzhou and Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong of which Air France has one percent share from this traffic.

Air France was the first Western airline to fly to China when it began the Paris-Shanghai service in 1966.