AF cambia business model ed operera' molte piu' rotte p2p da MRS/NCE/TLS/BOD
Air France to revise business model, operate more point-to-point routes
By
Cathy Buyck | July 12, 2011
As part of a new Air France strategy to give no-frills carriers a run for their money and regain some of the market share lost to lower cost rivals, the carrier on Monday released details of its revised business model that includes deploying Airbus A320s from several regional bases on point-to-point short- and medium-haul routes.
In the long term, AF intends to increase seat capacity more than 30% by launching 54 nonstop routes from Marseille, Toulouse, Nice and Bordeaux to major cities in Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as by increasing capacity on domestic routes. On “all flights,” passengers will benefit from the standard “free” AF services on its medium-haul network, including one piece of checked baggage, a choice of daily newspapers at boarding, a snack, and a choice of seat and payment by credit card at no extra charge, the carrier said.
“With this new project involving all its employees in France, Europe and the Mediterranean, Air France intends to initiate a virtuous circle that will enable its medium-haul operations to regain profitable growth, the foundation of the Air France-KLM group's strategy, while offering customers attractive fares and ensuring long-term employment,” said Air France KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.
The first base at MRS will launch Oct. 2 and Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice will follow in spring 2012. MRS used to be a thriving Ryanair base and, although it closed the base in January over a legal dispute with the French government over taxes and social security charges, it still is the largest user of the airport’s LCC terminal MP2 with 26 routes (
ATW Daily News, Oct. 14, 2010). Vueling recently opened a base at TLS; easyJet operates some 16 routes from NCE and a wide network from BOD.
AF has been working on this new regional approach for a while (
ATW Daily News, Sept. 8, 2010) and securing an agreement with its flight crew was the largest stumbling block, but last week the powerful AF SNPL pilot union announced that 54.4% of its members had voted to approve the project. AF said that implementing this new strategy—based on achieving a “significant” reduction in operational costs of around 15%—will be achieved by using a single aircraft type (A320 with between 142 and 178 seats) and an optimized daily aircraft utilization, with departures earlier in the morning and return flights later in the evening, as well as turnaround times reduced by five minutes at out-stations. Other cost reductions will come from flight crews based in the provinces and optimized use of human and material resources on the ground throughout the day.
The carrier will launch 13 nonstop routes from MRS, increasing seat capacity 50%. New routes include Basel Mulhouse, Biarritz, Brest, Athens, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Eindhoven, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow and Prague, Beirut, Istanbul and Casablanca. AF expects the base will result in 1.3 million additional passengers per year to and from MRS.
http://atwonline.com/airports-route...ss-model-operate-more-point-point-routes-0711