Thankfully the pax I was concerned about arrived CDG 4+ hours late (missing connections, AF and DL each pinning responsibility on the other - horrible customer service - but eventually AF rebooked). The reason for the diversion turned out to be that Niger denied airspace to the flight, requiring a diversion to Senegal for refueling and a significantly longer route. Recent political/military events in Niger are well known, as well as the perspective that the coup leaders have on their former colonist. What is curious, is that this flight number has done the direct route over Niger in all recent days and is scheduled for the same ETD/ETA tonight - is AF paying attention to politics? Or what happened?
It would also be nice if airlines would actually ANNOUNCE occurrences like this and the reason at least in general terms ... In this case, one of our pax was on medevac and we naturally wondered if this was the reason for the diversion ... Flight tracking provides the fact of the diversion and the times etc. but it seems impossible to know why.