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As Europe basks in an alarming heatwave, long-haul low-cost carrier French bee is already beginning to turn its attention to the winter, and it has filed an interesting new intercontinental route. Specifically, from December onwards, it will fly twice a week from its main base at Paris Orly Airport (ORY) in France to Malé (MLE) in the Maldives, onwards to Colombo (CMB) in Sri Lanka, and then back to Paris.
Passengers flying from Malé back to Paris Orly via Colombo can expect a hefty overall block time of close to 15 hours, thanks to the headwinds that airliners traveling in that direction typically face. While the Airbus A350s that French bee will operate on this route are more than capable of serving such long corridors, their high-density layout will mean that passenger comfort may be pushed to new extremes.
French bee’s New Route
As reported by Aviation Week, December 19, 2026, will see French bee launch its new route from Paris to Malé Velana International Airport and back via Bandaranaike International Airport in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo. According to Aero Routes, the carrier is set to favor the smaller Airbus A350-900 model on this route, although, as we shall explore later, these do still have 411 seats on board.
Subject to government approval, French bee plans for flight BF770 to depart from Paris Orly Airport at 7:30 PM, with its arrival in Malé timed for 9:25 AM the next day. After 90 minutes on the ground, it will continue at 10:55 AM, reaching Colombo at 12:55 PM. Here, it has a two-hour layover, and will leave at 2:55 PM, with its final arrival back into Paris timed for 9:30 PM. The airline’s website explains that:
“French bee is (…) dedicated to your comfort, but also to limiting the environmental impact by reducing fuel consumption and lowering the carbon footprint per passenger on its routes.”
The Frequency Will Drop At The End Of The Winter Season
French bee initially plans to operate this winter route twice a week, with the flights departing from Paris Orly Airport on Thursdays and Saturdays. Owing to the overnight nature of the first leg from the French capital city down to Malé, these flights will thus return on Fridays and Sundays. However, towards the end of the winter season, from March 10, 2027, the frequency will drop to one flight a week.
As far as flights from Paris to Malé and Colombo are concerned, the main operator is SriLankan Airlines. According to current scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, the Sri Lankan flag carrier and oneworld member is set to operate a grand total of 106 flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Colombo this year, with the Airbus A330 being its aircraft family of choice.
In terms of flights from the French capital city to Malé, competition is much more limited, with SkyTeam member Air France having only penciled in six from its main hub at Paris CDG Airport this year. This figure is split between two with the Boeing 777-300ER in January and four with the Airbus A350-900 in December. Beond also flies from Paris to Malé via Dubai (DWC), but the carrier is in hot water as of late.
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Inside French bee’s High-Density Airbus A350s
According to present fleet data made available by ch-aviation, French bee currently has four examples of the Airbus A350-900 at its disposal, with these modern widebody twinjets clocking in at an average age of 8.4 years old. Data from aeroLOPA shows that they have a high-density 411-seat layout, with this two-class configuration split between 35 premium economy recliners and 376 economy seats.
Meanwhile, the long-haul low-cost carrier also flies four units of the larger A350-1000 model (two on wet lease from Air Caraibes), and these jets are 5.4 years old on average. Their premium economy section is even denser, with eight seats per row rather than seven for an overall capacity of 40. They also have 440 economy seats, and these, like on the A350-900, are laid out in a ten-abreast 3-4-3 setup.
