On 29 April 1946, Air France wanted to "reach out all over the world"...
To America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, even to Iran, and launched its Paris-Tehran route. The Iranian capital was served once every two weeks by DC-3 and then by DC-4. Before the war, the airline had already launched flights to Bushehr, located 1,215 km south of Tehran, on its Far Eastern route. It was even the first airline to operate to Persia.
TEHRAN, A PROMISING DESTINATION
The “Echo de l’air”, the logbook at the time, said "Paris-Tehran in 19 hours and 30 minutes," for a trip that lasted two and a half days in 1947, a service operated by DC-4: departure on Sunday at 7:00 from Le Bourget, arrival in Tehran the following Tuesday at 13:15. With seven stopovers in between: Paris, Marseilles, Rome, Brindisi, Athens, Rhodes, Beirut, Baghdad, Tehran. A continuation of the "flagship" Paris-Beirut route, Paris-Tehran was operated by the Constellation in November 1949 with its luxury cabin and five star service. Traffic increased, with 1, 2, 3 and up to 5 weekly flights in 1956, operated by ever faster and ever more spacious aircraft, the Boeing 707 in 1961, and the Boeing 747 in 1972.
AIR FRANCE BACK IN IRAN
From 1979, the service was interrupted several times. First between 1981 and 1982, then 1985 and 1988 and then between 1997 and 2004. In October 2008, Air France suspended operations to Iran. The direct flight resumed on April 17, 2016, 70 years after the launch of the first flight. With the reopening of the Paris-Tehran route, Air France is illustrating its ambition to expand in a country with dynamic growth, the European Union being Iran’s fourth largest economic partner. The Company will serve Tehran by A330 or A340, three times a week from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.