Flying with a surfboard on Air France
Checked bag or sports fee · up to 300 cm.
- boards under 107 cm travel as a normal bag
- longer boards are a paid special item; the page gives an upper limit of 200 or 300 cm in different places
- fee varies by route
- the free-surfboard offer of 2015 to 2017 has ended
Air France's sports baggage page · checked 2026-10. Rules and fees change: check before you fly.
What surfers say
- Mixed (2021): On a French windsurf forum, members described Air France taking a 23 kg board bag inside the normal allowance, but desk staff quoting different fees for a 32 kg bag, and one member having to buy Hawaii tickets before the board bag could be approved. source
- Mixed (2016, Lorient-Paris-Guadeloupe): During Air France's free-board period, a friend's board was refused on the small Lorient-Paris feeder plane even though the call centre had said yes; at Paris the agent first claimed boards were limited to 1.5 m, then tried to charge 55 euros before checking the free offer. The board arrived intact and Air France refunded the unused feeder flight after a written claim. source
- Damaged (2008, BOD-PPT): A surfer flying Bordeaux to Tahiti paid 150 euros each way for the board bag, which arrived six days late on the way out and came home late with fins on both boards ground down and the bag torn, apparently from being dragged. source
Surf trips on Air France
Maldives, Morocco (Marrakesh), Tenerife South, Biarritz, Hossegor, Algarve, Lisbon, Ericeira, Peniche, Costa Rica (San José), Peru (Lima), Tahiti, Cape Town, Brazil, Fortaleza (Jericoacoara), Rio de Janeiro, Senegal (Dakar), Mauritius, Réunion, California, San Diego, California, Los Angeles, Panama, Chile (Santiago, for Pichilemu).