Nashville airport announces nonstop Air France flight

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday a state takeover of the Nashville airport authority didn’t hinder negotiations with Air France for a nonstop flight to Paris.

Lee, who signed a measure into law giving Tennessee leaders a majority of appointments to five airport boards statewide, said the Nashville board “made the right decisions” to ensure negotiations with Air France continued. 

The state is tied up in a lawsuit with Nashville and the former Metro Nashville Airport Authority over the move to replace the old board with a state-appointed group. Nashville is basing its legal stance on a federal law that says the Federal Aviation Administration won’t approve a change of the airport’s governing body if the former board didn’t consent.

“We have really seen the airport board and commissioners just step right into one decision to the next to make sure that this happened,” Lee said at a Wednesday announcement. He commended the board’s new chairman, Nashville businessman Jimmy Granbery, for his leadership.

Lawmakers passed the measure this April, three years after a three-judge panel blocked the legislature’s first effort to take control of the Nashville airport with a ruling saying it violated the state’s Home Rule Amendment, which prohibits the legislature from singling out a city or county government without its permission.

This year’s lawsuit came after the Tennessee Legislature passed legislation vacating the airport boards in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Tri-Cities and giving the governor, House and Senate speakers and the Nashville mayor authority to fill those positions. The law took effect in late May.

Air France’s nonstop flight between Nashville and Paris, which will take about nine and a half hours, is set to start May 14, 2027 three times a week and then expand. Complimentary French champagne is to be featured on an Airbus plane with 34 business seats, 24 premium seats and 266 economy seats, regardless of where passengers sit.

Airport President Doug Kreulen said negotiations took place with Air France over multiple years. Metro Airport officials wanted to make sure Air France built the plane it plans to use for the flight and spent $4 million expanding the airport to add gates that will handle the European flight, he said.