Airline bmi regional is to put on extra flights between Paris and Bristol Airport this weekend to meet demand from French rugby fans eager to see their team do battle with New Zealand in the World Cup quarter final.
Les Bleus take on the All Blacks in Cardiff on Saturday evening – and bmi has scheduled extra flights on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate fans heading to the crunch tie from the French capital. 
And for English supporters wishing to take their minds of their country’s early exit from the World Cup – or non-fans hoping to get away from the rugby – the extra flights mean more opportunities to head in the opposite direction and spend time in Paris.
Bmi regional chief commercial officer Jochen Schnadt said: “France’s progress into the quarter finals has seen demand for our scheduled services on the Paris-to-Bristol route surge.
“Responding to our customers’ needs, we are offering additional flights at convenient times on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate the increase in French rugby fans wishing to travel to Bristol and onto Cardiff.
“This in turn allows us also to offer great value to our customers in the West Country and Wales to fly to Paris for a mini-break on short notice.
“This increase in in-bound visitors is a huge boost to the local economy and we’re delighted that travellers to Wales are able to reach the rugby so easily using Bristol Airport, with a short onward journey to the Welsh capital.”
Under its usual timetable, bmi operates a twice-daily service between Bristol and Paris Charles De Gaulle on Mondays to Fridays with one flight on Sunday evening and none on Saturday.
Bmi launched its Paris service from Bristol in April – putting it in direct competition with rival EasyJet, which operates a single daily service on the route.
Bmi has 110 staff based at Bristol – 63 pilots, 36 cabin crew and 11 engineers – and each week it flies 3,200 people from the airport to seven destinations across Europe.
The additional Paris-Bristol flights are:
Saturday: Leave Bristol at 8am, arriving Paris Charles De Gaulle at 10.20am
Leave Paris Charles De Gaulle at 10.45am, arriving Bristol at 11.05am
Sunday: Leave Bristol at 2pm, arriving Paris Charles De Gaulle at 4.20pm
Leave Paris Charles De Gaulle at 4.50pm, arriving Bristol at 5.10pm
Bristol Airport achieved a new record of 768,587 passengers in August – up 6% on the same month last year. It is the first time the figure for August – the airport’s busiest month – had exceeded 750,000. At the time airport bosses said they expected the Rugby World Cup, coupled with Banksy’s Dismaland ‘bemusement park’ in Weston-super-Mare and the introduction of new destinations, would keep passenger numbers high for September and October.
