Air Tahiti Nui Seattle To Paris Flights Scrapped As Of January 2025

In October 2022, Air Tahiti Nui launched a new route from Papeete to Seattle. Then as of June 2023, the airline extended this service, to add a link between Seattle and Paris. There’s an update to this route — while the Papeete to Seattle route is sticking around, the Seattle to Paris route is being cut.

Air Tahiti Nui cuts Seattle to Paris route

Since June 2023, Air Tahiti Nui has been operating a 2x weekly, year-round flight between Seattle (SEA) and Paris (CDG), which has been an add-on to the existing Papeete (PPT) to Seattle route. The route currently operates with the following schedule:

TN58 Papeete to Seattle departing 11:35PM arriving 11:00AM (+1 day)
TN58 Seattle to Paris departing 1:25PM arriving 7:55AM (+1 day)

TN57 Paris to Seattle departing 11:00AM arriving 12:15PM
TN57 Seattle to Papeete departing 2:30PM arriving 10:05PM

This service is operated using a Boeing 787-9. The airline has just four of these aircraft, and they each feature 294 seats, including 30 business class seats, 32 premium economy seats, and 232 economy seats.

There’s a change coming to this route, as flagged by @IshrionA. As of January 5, 2025, Air Tahiti Nui will discontinue its route between Seattle and Paris, as it will instead shift those Paris frequencies to Los Angeles. However, the airline intends to maintain 2x weekly flights between Papeete and Seattle.

Air Tahiti Nui shifts capacity back to Los Angeles

French Polynesia is obviously popular with visitors from Metropolitan France, though it’s more or less on the other side of the globe, nearly 10,000 miles away. As a result, Air Tahiti Nui exclusively operates one stop service between Papeete and Paris.

Historically, Air Tahiti Nui’s service to Paris has operated via Los Angeles, with the following schedule:

TN8 Papeete to Los Angeles departing 11:45PM arriving 10:35AM (+1 day)
TN8 Los Angeles to Paris departing 1:30PM arriving 9:05AM (+1 day)

TN7 Paris to Los Angeles departing 12:05PM arriving 2:15PM
TN7 Los Angeles to Papeete departing 4:30PM arriving 10:05PM

When Air Tahiti Nui launched the Seattle to Paris flight, it reduced its Los Angeles to Paris service from 7x weekly to 5x weekly. In other words, the airline just shifted a couple of its frequencies from Los Angeles to Seattle, to mix things up a bit.

I found shifting capacity to Seattle to be an interesting move:

• Obviously a significant number of passengers on Air Tahiti Nui’s flights from the US to Paris are simply connecting all the way through; so the question is how the airline can most profitably fill those remaining seats on the transatlantic flight
• Air Tahiti Nui has a partnership with Alaska Airlines, so I imagine the airline was hoping it might pick up some significant local demand between Seattle and Paris
• The two routes (via Los Angeles or Seattle) are roughly the same length, as they’re within 35 miles of one another

With just 2x weekly service between Seattle and Paris, I’m not surprised that the route probably wasn’t gaining much traction with the local market. It’s not like Los Angeles to Paris is an easy market either, but at least it can be operated daily, and there’s a lot more demand between Papeete and Los Angeles.

While Air Tahiti Nui’s business class hard product leaves a bit to be desired, this sure has been a fun, exotic way to travel between Seattle and Paris.

Bottom line

Air Tahiti Nui will be discontinuing its route between Seattle and Paris, after less than two years of operating in the market. The airline will maintain service between Papeete and Seattle, but the transatlantic frequencies will shift back to Los Angeles. This means that Air Tahiti Nui will be back to operating daily flights between Los Angeles and Paris.

What do you make of Air Tahiti Nui ending Seattle to Paris flights?