Why she is definitively abandoning her historic connection to Mali

The deep geopolitical rift between Paris and the military governments of the Sahel has just reached an irreversible turning point with the announcement of the permanent closure of Air France’s office in Bamako on June 30, 2026, sealing the end of the French flag carrier’s historic presence in Mali.

This radical decision directly echoes the systematic boycott of French influence decreed by the Malian junta, a major bilateral crisis that had already led to the suspension of direct flights to the capital in 2023.

While the local office had remained open until then to sell tickets allowing customers to fly from neighboring countries, the overall security crisis linked to the rise of radical Islamist movements—which drove the French army out—now precludes any hope of resumption, effectively ending air travel. This situation also affects Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Niamey in Niger after two years of paralysis.

This withdrawal by Air France, which once reigned supreme in the region with seven weekly flights to Mali, radically reshuffles the cards in West African airspace: Turkish Airlines has now emerged as the main alternative to capture this strategic traffic, while the other French operator, Corsair, has also been forced to permanently suspend its operations after attempting to maintain its routes for a little longer.