70 years of history between France and China

Air France has been present in China since 1938 with its services to Hong Kong and has also been operating flights between Paris and Shanghai, the country's economic capital, for more than sixty years. In 1973, Air France launched flights between Paris and Beijing via Karachi and started operating a service to Guangzhou in 2004.
Since 1947, the flight time has been reduced from 3 days and 5 stopovers to 11 hours non-stop. From just a few weekly frequencies in the past, Air France and KLM now operate 93 weekly flights to 6 destinations in China.
On all its flights to China, Air France offers its new Premium Voyageur cabin in addition to the three traditional cabin classes, La Première, Business and Voyageur.
The history of routes between Paris and China
1947 The twice-monthly Air France route from Paris to Shanghai via Saigon is officially launched. The 15,000 Km between the two cities is flown in 45 hrs 35 min flight time and a total journey time of 76 hours, on board the DC4 "Ile de France".
1966 Air France launches its weekly Paris-Shanghai route on board the Boeing 707 "Château de Cheverny", which had ceased operations in 1949. Three crews share the 23 hours flight time. Air France is then the only European airline to operate service to the People's Republic of China.
1972 A second weekly flight is launched and shortly afterwards, in 1973, the Paris--Beijing route is launched, putting an end to Paris-Shanghai services.
1973 Air France launches its Paris-Beijing route via Karachi, with two weekly flights.
1998 Thanks to agreements with China Eastern, Air France resumes non-stop services to Shanghai twice weekly. The new Airbus A340-300 which operates the route can carry up to 252 passengers. Traffic is such that the weekly frequency is increased to three flights in September 1998.
2001 Shanghai is served daily as part of the China Eastern-Air France partnership.
2004 Air France launches its Paris-Guangzhou route
2006 Air France develops a quality schedule to four major destinations in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, a total of 47 weekly frequencies including code-share flights operated by its Chinese partners China Southern and China Eastern.
2010 Air France and China Southern sign a joint-venture agreement based on sharing revenue on the Paris-Guangzhou route, which will come into effect on 1 November 2010.
2011 Air France offers 93 weekly flights to 6 destinations.

[@am1966ath]

My chinese friend from Hongkong flew with them...in her opinion she didn t find any air france employee at their "hub" CDG-2 being able to speak neither mandarin nor cantonese and also being rude and racist towards her..so much for "experience"...AF is alos rude to indian passangers..obviously you should be french and living in Paris in order to enjoy AF???