Air France summer 2005

[TW 843]

Roissy, 16 mars 2005

Air France Summer 2005 Flight Schedule: More Destinations, More Flights and an even Wider Choice of Departure Times Thanks to the Expanding Combined Air France-KLM Network

Capitalizing on the assets of the Air France – KLM Group, the new Air France Summer 2005 flight schedule has been significantly expanded.
Capacity, measured in ASK (Available seat-km), will increase by 4.6% across the network and by 5.9% in long-haul services.
Many new developments, based on four main strategic guidelines, will make this combined Air France-KLM network even more attractive.

1. The combined Air France – KLM network : more destinations, more flights, an even wider choice of departure times and more attractive prices.

· The networks of the two airlines have been coordinated thanks to a dense, regular service – 15 round trips per day - between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol, forming Europe's first multi-hub system.

· The many flights between the French regions (Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice and Toulouse) and Amsterdam give these regions full access to the KLM network, thus supplementing Air France's already considerable capacity.

· So that Air France and KLM customers can more easily benefit from all the advantages of a combined network, a new innovative and highly efficient organization has been implemented.
Combinable fares enable customers to combine an outgoing flight via Paris-CDG with a return flight via Amsterdam (or vice-versa). In this way, they enjoy a wider choice of schedules and greater access to cheaper fares.
A new joint frequent flyer programme will also replace the two individual Fréquence Plus and Flying Dutchman FFPs. The name of Europe's most extensive frequent flyer programme will be unveiled very shortly.

· Air France code-shares with KLM to a number of long-haul destinations, now accessible through Amsterdam (Aruba, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bonaire, Jakarta, Curacao, Guayaquil, Kuala Lumpur, Lima, Manila, Quito, etc.) as well to around fifteen European destinations.

· The merger of the two airlines has also generated substantial synergies. Together, the two airlines have been able to expand the Group's commercial presence and to improve the quality of their product offering, while at the same time streamlining the resources used.

For example, the service to Venezuela from Europe was hardly economically viable and not particularly attractive to customers as there were no daily flights. The cooperation between Air France and KLM has today led to daily service from Paris, and the results are such that, with a load factor up 5 points, the Summer 2005 schedule will feature flights operated with the largest aircraft in the fleet – the Boeng B747-400 (see below).


2. On course for fast-growing markets

In Latin America, where capacity (ASK) has increased by 29%, Air France will serve all its destinations at least once daily.

· To and from Mexico City, Air France will introduce a second flight four times a week by B747-400 (i.e. 11 weekly flights operated by Air France coupled with one daily flight code-shared with Aeromexico)
· Air France will serve Caracas daily by B747-400, given the very good results mentioned above.
· The same applies to Rio de Janeiro, where Air France will continue to offer daily service by B747-400, started this winter.
· Finally Bogota will benefit from two more weekly flights, which means that Air France will offer daily service from Paris.

Air France is expanding its service to Asia by offering 128 round-trip flights, with in particular:

· The introduction of a second daily flight to Beijing.
· The additional daily flight to Bombay and the launch of the daily Madras service, code-shared with Delta, will increase capacity to India. Three daily flights between Paris and Tokyo, i.e. four more weekly flights.
· Furthermore, an agreement with JAL means that Air France can offer customers a daily code-shared flight to Nagoya, operated by the Japanese airline, and a daily flight to Osaka operated by Air France with the B777-300.
· Continued cooperation with Qantas on the Singapore-Australia segment, launched this winter, which is already turning out some very satisfactory results.

Air France is boosting its service to Eastern Europe by offering three new destinations:

· Belgrade, with one daily flight;
· Ljubljana in Slovenia, with two daily flights (since this winter);
· Zagreb, with two daily flights, including one operated by Croatia Airlines.

· Air France is also increasing capacity to Bucharest with five daily flights, two of which operated by Tarom, and an eighth daily flight to Moscow in conjunction with Aeroflot.

3. Air France is improving its product to oil and gas customers, particularly to Port-Harcourt and Luanda, also thanks to DEDICATE. Today DEDICATE represents 16 weekly flights to Africa and the Middle East:

· One more weekly flight has been scheduled to Port Harcourt, now making a total of four weekly flights.
· Service to Luanda has improved with the entry into service of a B777-300.
· Air France is adding two more weekly flights to Pointe-Noire, raising the number of weekly flights to five with the Dedicate A319 (subject to being granted traffic rights).
· Air France will serve Riyadh from Paris four times a week with a Dedicate A319.

4. Thanks to SkyTeam, and in spite of very fierce competition, Air France is expanding its service to North America, with capacity in ASK up by 10%.

· Air France is adding Detroit, one of Northwest's main hubs, to its list of destinations, thanks to a daily A330 flight as from 13 June.
· Air France customers will enjoy a third daily frequency to Washington from Paris as from 9 May.
· Finally, since 26 Februray, 21 new U.S. destinations will be offered on departure from Paris via Houston or Newark with Continental. This makes a total of 125 U.S. cities served by Air France with its own aircraft and crew, or on a code-share basis with its U.S. partners Delta et Continental.

* * * *
Other new features of the Summer 2005 schedule:

Cooperation with Air Europa has been strengthened. The Spanish airline operates daily service to Seville and Alicante and three times a week a direct flight to Palma. It also operates four of the 14 flights between Paris and Madrid, and one of the two daily flights to Valencia.

Still in Spain, Vigo now enjoys another daily frequency, making a total of three daily flights.

Service to Istanbul has been improved, now with three daily flights.

Air France has also added a Sunday flight to Marrakech (now bringing the number of weekly flights to nine) and during the Summer peak period, another flight has been scheduled to Casablanca and to Tunis (night flight), making a total of five daily flights.

Since January 2005, Air France, in partnership with the Austrian airline Styrian Spirit, is offering a new Austrian destination – Salzburg – with two daily flights.

Among the new features on the long-haul network, capacity is increasing to Antananarivo and to Teheran with five weekly flights, and to Dubai with a second daily flight. In Africa, Air France will be adding flights to Lomé (4/7), Cotonou (5/7) , Nouakchott (4/7) and Conakry (6/7).

Lastly, there are very few changes on the domestic network compared with the current Winter schedule: four flights between Paris-CDG and Strasbourg instead of five and one more flight between Nice and Nantes (now three daily flights).

A few key figures:
- 17,900 weekly medium-haul/long-haul connecting opportunities at the Paris-CDG hub (i.e. 49% more than Europe's second largest hub).
- 94% of flights to long-haul destinations are non-stop to cut down on travelling time.
- A minimum of 60% of long-haul destinations are served at least once daily, for maximum convenience.

Fonte: airfrance.com


Che dire? Avercela in Italia una compagnia così!

[marcogiov]

In Origine postato da TW 843
Che dire? Avercela in Italia una compagnia così!

Sì, non viene nemmeno invidia, solo depressione.

[CharlieTango]

...ed un po' di tristezza, pensando che AZ come espressione del proprio rilancio introduce il... BGY-FCO!

Ciao,

CharlieTango

[Steman]

Beh, quando Alitalia sara' la filiale Italiana del gruppo AF-KLM potremo dire anche noi di avere una compagnia cosi!

[FlyIce]

In Origine postato da marcogiov
Sì, non viene nemmeno invidia, solo depressione.

Per quanto riguarda il commento sulla BGY-FCO, non sono d'accordo; AZ ha ampliato non poco il network nelle ultime stagioni.
Ora che non può aggiungere nuovi aerei si sta consolidando ...
... riallocazione di macchine più adatte, ritocchi alle frequanze ...

[CharlieTango]

In Origine postato da FlyIce


Per quanto riguarda il commento sulla BGY-FCO, non sono d'accordo; AZ ha ampliato non poco il network nelle ultime stagioni.
Ora che non può aggiungere nuovi aerei si sta consolidando ...
... riallocazione di macchine più adatte, ritocchi alle frequanze ...

OK, il BGY-FCO era un attacco di acidità da parte mia

Per continuare i tuoi puntini ...attivazione di code-share con altri operatori nazionali, non in orbita LH....

Ciao,

CharlieTango

[Worldclimber]

un altro universo...

complimenti AF!!!!

[hokusai77]

In Origine postato da CharlieTango
...ed un po' di tristezza, pensando che AZ come espressione del proprio rilancio introduce il... BGY-FCO!

Ciao,

CharlieTango

Ma come, ti apriranno pure il VCE-CAG come espressione del loro massiccio ritorno sul Nordest

Ciao
Yari

[CharlieTango]

In Origine postato da hokusai77
Ma come, ti apriranno pure il VCE-CAG come espressione del loro massiccio ritorno sul Nordest

Ciao
Yari

... e non solo... in un crescendo maestoso: da Maggio la base AZ su VCE, e molto prima il codeshare con E8...

MAH!

ciao,

CharlieTango