Live and Let\u2019s Fly,<\/a>\u00a0whose founder Matthew Klint discovered during a recent visit that the sauna signs had disappeared and the door was locked with a \u201cStaff Only\u201d sign.<\/p>\nAfter a member of staff confirmed the facility was \u201cfinished\u201d, Klint asked a lounge manager whether the closure was temporary. According to his account, the manager confirmed it was permanent and explained that passengers had been \u201cdoing things in there that they should not have\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reports point to sexual activity<\/p>\n
The manager did not explicitly describe what passengers had been doing, but\u00a0Live and Let\u2019s Fly\u00a0reported that his reaction when asked to elaborate left little doubt that he was referring to sexual activity.<\/p>\n
The story has since been picked up by other media, including Portuguese broadcaster SIC, which reported that inappropriate behaviour by passengers was one of the main reasons behind the permanent closure.<\/p>\n
There is, however, an important distinction between the reported conversation with the lounge manager and Air France\u2019s official position. The airline has not publicly confirmed that passengers were having sex in the sauna, nor has it issued a statement saying sexual activity was the reason for closing it.<\/p>\n
The allegation therefore remains based on\u00a0Live and Let\u2019s Fly\u2019s account of its conversation with an Air France lounge manager rather than an official statement from the carrier.<\/p>\n
Too much privacy?<\/p>\n
The sauna was one of the most distinctive features of Air France\u2019s premium ground experience at Charles de Gaulle. Its facilities included a private changing room, a large walk-in shower and a wood-panelled sauna capable of accommodating several people.<\/p>\n
Despite its size, the entire suite could be used privately, something that made it particularly attractive for passengers wanting to relax before a flight or during a connection.<\/p>\n
That privacy, however, may ultimately have contributed to its disappearance.<\/p>\n
Air France\u2019s current information for the Hall L Business lounge continues to promote a range of wellness facilities, including showers, relaxation areas and complimentary Clarins treatments, but the sauna is no longer listed.<\/p>\n
The disappearance leaves considerably fewer opportunities for frequent flyers looking to sweat between flights. Finnair continues to advertise a traditional Finnish sauna in its Platinum Wing at Helsinki Airport, available to eligible passengers travelling through the non-Schengen area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air France has permanently closed one of the more unusual amenities at its Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13058],"tags":[739,41791,34119,41792,2467,41793,37060,33918,41794,12698],"class_list":["post-67652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-air-france","tag-air-france","tag-air-france-lounge","tag-airport-lounge","tag-airport-sauna","tag-aviation-news","tag-business-lounge","tag-cdg-airport","tag-finnair","tag-inappropriate-passenger-behaviour","tag-paris-charles-de-gaulle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}