Together with partner airlines, the group serves 52 African destinations and continues to increase flights to major resource markets. Most recently it added daily services by Air France between Paris and Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

The group even has a frequent flier rewards program for resource companies called Flying Blue Petroleum.

Together Air France and KLM have more than 110 departures a week from Australia to Europe, through code share agreements with partner airlines such as Qantas and Malaysia Airlines.

KLM will offer more services from October when three extra weekly flights between Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam take off.

Both Air France and KLM offer code share departures from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. These connect with their own flights from Asia to Europe and beyond to Africa’s mining and oil and gas regions.

Connections also are available from Darwin, Cairns and the Gold Coast. Passengers from Papua New Guinea can join Air France and KLM in Australia.

Air France KLM regional manager Australian and New Zealand Tom Reeves said many of Australia’s resources sector companies had significant links with oil, gas and mining activities in Africa.

“We are targeting those companies to highlight our excellent flight connections from Australia to Africa’s key resource exploration regions travelling via our European hubs in Paris and Amsterdam,” he said.

“The resources industry is booming in both Australia and Africa and we can connect travellers between both markets with our broad network of destinations and growing number of flights.

“We can also meet the needs and budgets of individuals and corporations in Australia conducting business with oil, gas and mining enterprises in Africa’s major resource exploration regions.”