Seventy years ago France’s five fledgling private aviation companies joined forces to give birth to what has become a grande dame of airlines — Air France.
The airline certainly does not look its age. Far from retiring into obscurity, the French carrier has remained stylishly youthful (as perhaps is fitting for a Parisienne) and enviably active, with a whole host of developments looking set to make it a tour de force in the global airline industry.
Never accused of sloth, Air France took steps in 2000 to develop a powerful alliance policy, launching its worldwide SkyTeam with partners Aeromexico, Delta Airlines and Korean Air. The Czech flag carrier CSA and Alitalia joined up in 2001, enabling the SkyTeam to offer to more than 8 000 flights a day.
And now Air France and KLM have announced that they have signed the final transaction agreement, which will lead to the creation of Europe’s leading airline group through a share-exchange offer by Air France for KLM’s common shares. “With the addition of KLM, customers will enjoy unparalleled access to the world’s most favoured and heavily-travelled routes,” said Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chairman and CEO of Air France, on behalf of the governing board.
“KLM’s Schiphol [International airport] will be an integral part of SkyTeam’s extensive hub strategy, adding a powerful, new European hub to a network that already includes Atlanta, Mexico City, Milan, Paris-CDG, Prague, Rome and Seoul.
“This will allow us to offer our customers a wider range of convenient connections and a larger choice of destinations.”
The SkyTeam alliance network offers passengers a broad connection via a multihub system to hundreds of cities around the world. Customers will also receive frequent flyer benefits on all carriers.
As if these new developments aren’t enough, Air France has recently taken a delivery of the first of 15 Airbus A318 aircraft destined for its French domestic and European routes. The A318, which made its first flight 12 months ago, is the latest and smallest addition to the A320 family. The acquisition of the new Airbuses is part of Air France’s programme to rationalise and modernise its fleet.
And, as they say in advertising, there’s more. Besides adding new aircraft to its fleet, Air France has overhauled its existing planes.
At a final cost of more than â,¬300-million and five years of hard work to bring this project to fruition — one involving 14 different sectors in Air France, close on 50 suppliers, 300 000 working hours to refit 69 aircraft, 290 third-generation self-service kiosks — the airline can now boast 50% more personal space in l’Espace Première (First Class) and 27% in l’Espace Affaires (Business Class).
The result of this is a luxury First Class, available on selected destinations and an even further enhanced Business Class, offering passengers a lie-flat seat-bed reclining to 180 degrees.
The introduction of this completely reworked chain of products and services kicks off in November and is due to be completed by mid-2005.
The overall result will be a new Air France travel concept, aimed at satisfying its 42-million passengers each year and giving them a travel experience with distinctive French flair, which is, after all, Air France’s raison de’être.
The first phase of this overhaul has been partially implemented on the ground at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, where a grand new terminal — Terminal 2E — has been unveiled.
The new terminal, specifically for Air France and its SkyTeam partners, will have an initial annual capacity of six million passengers, rising to nine million by its completion in 2005.
The new terminal is all part of a high-tech drive that has seen Air France introduce e-ticketing in South Africa to test the waters, as it were, for the dawn of this new, ultra-modern approach in Africa. An e-ticket is an electronic version of the conventional paper ticket.
It is an electronic record kept in a computer database. Eight million passengers have already used e-ticketing and currently 25% of all Air France passengers travel with one.
From a South African point of view Air France offers a different approach to Europe, using Paris as a hub and gateway to the continent. It’s a popular route, especially for business travellers.
Paris has two airports, with Charles de Gaulle and Orly offering onward connections to destinations throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle and Far East.
Lounge facilities for Business Class passengers are available around the world at most major destinations, as is a frequent flyer programme, Fréquence Plus, which is available on all SkyTeam partner airlines.
For more information on Air France and the services it offers, visit www.airfrance.com/za.