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Air France: Winter schedule 2010/11

Direct News Source

22-Oct-2010 Even if high-yield traffic has still not recovered to pre-crisis levels, activity over the past few months shows a net improvement compared with last year.

In this context, the Air France KLM group's winter schedule posts capacity, measured in ASK (available seat kilometres), up by 3.3% compared with winter 2009. This progression is largely due to the group's long-haul activity (up 4.1%), whereas activity is practically stable on medium-haul routes (up 0.5%).

The Air France schedule

This winter, Air France posts growth in terms of Available Seat Kilometres of +1.7% which is an average of +2.5% on long-haul routes and -1% on medium-haul routes.

The fleet

Air France is continuing its fleet modernization and is increasing its range of products and services to better meet its customers' needs.

The new Premium Voyageur cabin, located between the Business class cabin and the Voyageur (Economy) cabin, is now available on 90% of long-haul routes operated by Air France on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

At the end of 2010, the new long-haul Business class seat, presented at the recent IFTM Top Résa trade fair, more comfortable and with several new features, will be installed on certain long-haul aircraft.

Since the beginning of October, three destinations are served by the A380: New York (5 times weekly), Johannesburg and Tokyo Narita (one daily flight). The fifth and sixth A380s will start operating in May and June 2010.

Concerning the medium-haul fleet, 90% of aircraft in the A320 family operating on the domestic network are today equipped with new, lighter seats which offer more legroom.

The long-haul schedule

On routes to North America and Latin America, Air France will be operating a flight schedule similar to the one it operated before the economic crisis, with 6 daily frequencies to New York, increased capacity to Boston and Mexico and 2 daily flights to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Growth in capacity is considerable to Asia this winter (+5.4% in ASK).

In India, services to Bangalore will be daily.

The Paris-Bangkok route will benefit from a daily flight by A340 entirely dedicated to this destination as the continuations to Vietnam will no longer operate. Flights to Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi will be non-stop. There will be 5 weekly services to these two cities in cooperation with Vietnam Airlines, a new SkyTeam alliance partner, with Air France operating 3 of the 5 flights to Ho Chi Minh.

To Tokyo, in addition to its flights to Tokyo Narita, Air France will also be offering a daily service to Haneda airport, closer to the city centre, operated by its Japanese partner JAL.

In Africa, Air France is adding a new destination to its network. Bata, in Equatorial Guinea, will be served twice weekly via Malabo by A319 Dedicate (subject to infrastructure compatibility), and there will be daily flights to Malabo.

Air France is increasing the number of flights to Pointe Noire in the Republic of Congo (5 weekly flights) and to Libreville (5 weekly frequencies subject to authorization from the Gabonese authorities).

Finally, services to Djibouti will be increased from one weekly flight to 3 weekly flights via Jeddah.

In the Middle-East, Air France is increasing capacity to Saudi Arabia. Services to both Riyadh and Jeddah will be daily thanks to a code-share agreement with Saudi Arabian Airlines. Both these destinations will be served 3 times weekly by an Air France A330 and by a Saudi Arabian Airlines A320 on the other 4 days.

In the Indian Ocean, Air France is increasing the number of flights to Reunion Island (9 weekly flights for the entire season).

The medium-haul schedule

Air France confirms the good results of the adaptation plan for medium-haul frequencies on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle, implemented at the beginning of 2010 and which has resulted in a net recovery of the routes concerned.

There are very few changes for the winter 2010 season.

On departure from Paris, three destinations will benefit from an additional frequency: Oslo (3 daily flights), Oviedo (3 daily flights) and Verona (4 daily flights).

A new partnership agreement was signed with Bulgaria in May 2010 concerning services to Sofia (2 daily flights this winter including one operated by Bulgaria).

A commercial cooperation agreement was also signed with the UK's leading domestic airline, Flybe, increasing the number of flights between the UK and France.

On departure from the French regions, there will be two new routes from Toulouse: Düsseldorf (1 daily flight operated by Régional) and Hamburg (1 daily flight operated by Brit Air) whereas routes to Copenhagen, Munich and Madrid are being suspended from Lyon.

The subsidiary CityJet's network is being restructured on departure from London City, with an additional frequency to Paris-Orly (6 daily flights). There will be less flights to Dublin (4 daily flights), Edinburgh (3 daily flights), Amsterdam (8 daily flights) and Dundee (2 daily flights) whereas services to Jersey are being suspended.

On routes between France and the Netherlands, there will still be 12 daily flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol (6 Air France flights and 6 KLM flights) but the Lyon-Amsterdam route is being reduced from 4 to 3 daily flights.

On the domestic network, the main new feature is the reopening of the Nantes-Paris Orly route with 4 daily frequencies. The aim is to offer connections at Orly with Air France flights to Cayenne, Fort de France, Pointe à Pitre and Reunion Island. Note that these flights are operated by the same aircraft as the Nantes-London City and Paris Orly-London City flights.