Air France

Details

The grand old man of European air travel was formed in 1933, and has hovered over French social and political history ever since. In its early years, Air France provided a way of shuttling diplomats between the countrys various North African colonies; for the duration of WW2, it shifted its operations to Casablanca - and incidentally provided the plane upon which Ingrid Bergmans Ilsa departs at the end of the film of that title. In the 1970s, Concorde connected Paris to New York in record time; and the company received a major shot in the arm in 2004 when it merged with Dutch operator KLM, becoming overnight the largest European airline in terms of miles flown.

Nowadays, Air France offers flights from Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in Paris to a wide range of global cities and a host of exclusive hotspots: think Mauritius, Martinique and the tiny island of Réunion. Air France also has a virtual monopoly of French domestic flights, much to the annoyance of European no-frills operators.

In-flight, the experience remains as chic as ever, with Christian Lacroix-designed staff uniforms, and calming atmosphere music from the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, VV Brown and Telepopmusik playing before takeoff and landing; if it were any cooler, the no-smoking signs would be modelled on actual Gitanes.

Air France offer a huge range of connecting flights through their main hub at Charles de Gaulle airport just north of Paris. One of the advantages of using Air France is that their main Paris hub is designed to offer "waves" of transfer flights, which arrive and depart within three hours of each other.

Note that some Air France flights to long-haul holiday destinations, particularly those in the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean, depart from Paris Orly (which is situated south of the French capital) rather than Charles de Gaulle. Allow at least an hour to transfer between the two airports double that if you are heading through Paris during rush hour.