Air France will resume flights from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Modibo Keita International Airport (BKO) in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
The first flight will take off on October 13, 2023. Flights will not be conducted directly by Air France, but instead through the wet-lease of a Boeing 777-200ER operated by the Portuguese airline EuroAtlantic Airways.
Service was interrupted on August 7, 2023, after the closure of the airspace of neighboring Niger, embroiled in a coup d’état. As a consequence, Air France canceled flights to Niamey in Niger, Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, and Bamako in Mali.
“Air France is working in close collaboration with the Burkinabe authorities in order to resume its service to Burkina Faso as quickly as possible,” an Air France spokesperson told AFP. “Service to Niamey remains suspended until further notice.”
Relations between France and Mali have been tense following two coups in 2020 and 2021 that put into power a new military junta. On August 27, 2022, the French military put an end to Operation Barkhane and disengaged from Mali, nine years after local authorities requested help from France to counter Islamic militants from the north of the country.
