Air France plans low-cost services

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Kate
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Air France plans low-cost services

Post by Kate »

From www.expatica.com

January 25, 2010
AIR France is planning to take on Easyjet and Ryanair by launching a range of low-cost domestic flights linking French cities.

According to a report in La Tribune - which Air France has refused to comment on - the airline will use Nice as a base for the operation.

Air France will use its sister brand Transavia to offer cheap flights linking Nice with the rest of France, using 186-seater planes. Until now, Transavia has specialised in European short-haul tourist services from Orly.

It is understood to have picked Nice as the base because Easyjet of the high numbers of leisure travellers who pass through the airport to visit the Côte d'Azur. Easyjet already has a strong presence there, with flights to Paris, the UK and Geneva.

The low-cost plan is part of a series of measures Air France is looking at to save money on its domestic flights bypassing Paris.

It wants to improve efficiency by about 20% at the regional airports it serves - with faster flight turnarounds, fewer check-in staff and more outsourced work.

Easyjet and Ryanair are both well-established in the French domestic flights market. Ryanair uses Marseille as a base to serve Biarritz, Tours, Lille, Nantes and Beauvais, while Easyjet offers flights from its Lyon base to Bordeaux, Toulouse, Biarritz and Nantes.
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Post by john »

Whilst this is interesting news,Kate, low cost ventures by established airlines have been disastrous (eg Go, Buzz, Ted, Song, Viva,Clickair),and French attempts at low cost have been pretty poor and short lived (eg Aeris,Air Lib).

So an Air France low cost wing does not fill me with confidence !

The fact is that love 'em or hate 'em,people take EZY and FR on at their peril.

What is needed is more genuine competition on all Fr domestic routes,in the same way that there is in UK,Spain, Germany and Italy
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Post by blackduff »

john wrote:Whilst this is interesting news,Kate, low cost ventures by established airlines have been disastrous (eg Go, Buzz, Ted, Song, Viva,Clickair),and French attempts at low cost have been pretty poor and short lived (eg Aeris,Air Lib).
I flew Air Liberty from the beginning of their MD 80 ~B717 aircraft. I paid full price on their flights until Air France took control. I never new of the Air Liberty ticket prices as "low". I used the Perpignan/Orly flights to get the rest of world.

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Post by john »

blackduff wrote:
john wrote:Whilst this is interesting news,Kate, low cost ventures by established airlines have been disastrous (eg Go, Buzz, Ted, Song, Viva,Clickair),and French attempts at low cost have been pretty poor and short lived (eg Aeris,Air Lib).
I flew Air Liberty from the beginning of their MD 80 ~B717 aircraft. I paid full price on their flights until Air France took control. I never new of the Air Liberty ticket prices as "low". I used the Perpignan/Orly flights to get the rest of world.

Blackduff
They sort of morphed in the late 90's/early 00's into a low cost carrier,BD, with a tie up with BA,and changed their name to Air Lib. I don't think their route network was extensive by today's standard,but certainly included Perps. I remember another firm called AOM that was allied to them. The whole shooting match went bust in 2002.
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Post by polremy »

Does anyone else remember flying with Danair?
(always referred to as "Dan Dare")
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Post by blackduff »

Danair died recently. I have a friend who transferred from China to Copenhagen to handle Danair and then they went belly-up.

John, The AOM was the super enemy from Air Liberté. We had one product support rep at Paris for AOM and another rep for Air Liberté. As you mentioned, they went together and went belly-up too. Both were customers for McDonnell Douglas / Boeing.

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Post by john »

polremy wrote:Does anyone else remember flying with Danair?
(always referred to as "Dan Dare")
Oh yes PR.

The Dan Air Comet.

The epitome of UK low cost travel in the 1970's.

I met my current wife on a Dan Air BAC 1-11.
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Post by Rose »

If she is only your current wife, are you thinking of replacing her? :lol:
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Re: Air France plans low-cost services

Post by Roger O »

Kate wrote:AIR France is planning to take on Easyjet and Ryanair by launching a range of low-cost domestic flights linking French cities.

According to a report in La Tribune - which Air France has refused to comment on - the airline will use Nice as a base for the operation.

Air France will use its sister brand Transavia to offer cheap flights linking Nice with the rest of France, using 186-seater planes. Until now, Transavia has specialised in European short-haul tourist services from Orly.
In other words, AF has finally realised it should have left Air Inter (France's profitable erstwhile fully independent domestic carrier, for those who don't know) in peace and not gobbled it up!!! About time!!

I and hundreds of thousands of others travelled many many times on IT (Air Inter). It was the backbone of French domestic air travel for many years and served practically every city with a population of 30,000 or more - the larger ones with direct flights between them avoiding Paris.

Orly West ORY was totally Air Inter after AF moved to Roissy CDG until the takeover and merge as "AF domestic" which reduced the services by about 50% between french towns and cities!

In memoriam!
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Last edited by Roger O on Mon 25 Jan 2010 22:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by mpprh »

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I remember flying to Spain with Dan Air comets providing a charter service in the late 1970's.

In the 1980's Dan Air offered scheduled flights (they were one of the last charter operations not owned by a holiday company) and I used them several times to fly Heathrow - Inverness.

They suffered from the downturn following the first Bush inspired Iraq adventure and were bought by BA in 1992 for GBP1.

BA took on the debts, but more importantly gained the slots at Heathrow and Gatwick which were ( and still are !) an important part of their monopolistic business model.

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Post by Roger O »

blackduff wrote:John, The AOM was the super enemy from Air Liberté. We had one product support rep at Paris for AOM and another rep for Air Liberté. As you mentioned, they went together and went belly-up too. Both were customers for McDonnell Douglas / Boeing.Blackduff
AOM, Air Liberté and Air Littoral all died partly due to Swissair which bought all 3 and pumped millions into them but tried to eliminate union influence - definitely a killer strategy in France!! I was there when it happened and my wife suffered from it at Nice airport as SR staff harassed by Air Littoral which controlled a lot of the handling airside at that time. The whole thing was a disaster!!
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Post by Rose »

I am going to boast now like CB did as I am extremely proud of my son. My son is a Gulfstream V pilot. It is all the more amazing as he survived a helicopter crash in 1992 when 2 people died and he was run over by a bus in 1999. I have spent many days in Intensive Care Depts. You would never get me in a helicopter but I do take buses occasionally.

I remember a Dan Air trip to Stornoway in the eightes. I had to sit in the jump seat as the plane was full.An alarm went off at one point and I thought the end was nigh. I also remember my scissors being taken away from my hand luggage with my cross stitch kit.

Not sure about these body scanners though!
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Post by Roger O »

Bravo Rose!!
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Re: Air France plans low-cost services

Post by john »

Roger O wrote:color=blue]In other words, AF has finally realised it should have left Air Inter (France's profitable erstwhile fully independent domestic carrier, for those who don't know) in peace and not gobbled it up!!! About time!![/color]

]
Did Air Inter really make a profit Roger ? I'll concede you know far more about these things,but it was always felt that,behind the scenes, it received huge subsidies and sweetheart deals from AF and the French government,thus creating the illusion of a profitable operation. Also,I remember the fares were eye watering,except on well-patronised trunk routes.

In that form,it would never compete these days with stripped down,low fares operations like EasyJet,Ryanair,Air Berlin and Vueling,though of course,Air Inter started the concept of non seat allocation ,long before those guys hit on it!
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Post by blackduff »

Air Inter had bought the whole production of the Mercure aircraft. It was smaller than a MD 80 diameter but they put six seats abreast, to get the most money as possible. The Mercure was built only ten units and Air Inter had the the whole group. I rode on all of them across France. Bad,bad airplanes.

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Post by john »

Yes,I remember that plane,BD,but never got to ride in one. Was it as dismal comfort wise as a BAe 146 ? Now that really is a crap plane.

After the Caravelle and Comet and VC-10,the French and the British deluded themselves into believing that they could build credible jet aeroplanes on their own;witness the Mercure,Trident and BAC 1-11
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