Air France now operates four A380 aircraft out of a total initial order of 12. The aircraft operates routes from CDG to North America, Japan and South Africa.
Paris
still recovering from a number of setbacks, not least of all the loss of Air France Flight 447 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June 2009. This was followed by a leak to the aviation trade press earlier this year of a report commissioned by the airline, which was critical of its safety culture. Moreover, continuing political instability in parts of the Middle East and North Africa could have negative consequences for the airline’s fuel bill and its network there in the coming months. However, the airline has enjoyed some good news, announcing in January that it carried 6.7% more passengers compared with the same month a year earlier. It also reported good third quarter results for the 2010–11 fi nancial year, with a 13.9% rise in revenue to €5.92 billion. Nevertheless, a number of events, such as extreme weather towards the end of the year, and industrial action by French air traffi c controllers, cost the airline around €100 million during this quarter, €70 million of which was incurred in December.
Future aircraft orders
The airline could look forward to new routes opening up and increased capacity in the future with the arrival of a new mid-sized long-haul airliner in the 2015–2025 timeframe. Both Air
www.routesonline.com
France and KLM are expected to opt for either the Boeing 787-900 or the A350-900, purchasing between 80 and 100 aircraft. Air France-KLM is expected to make a decision on which aircraft it will select by 2014 at the latest. The new aircraft will replace the 17 Airbus A340-300s operated by Air France. Meanwhile, KLM will replace its 10 McDonnell Douglas/Boeing MD-11 and 16 Boeing 747-400M Combi aircraft with the new airliner.
Based on the existing, combined A340/A330 and MD-11/B747 Air France-KLM fl eets, should the two airlines split the A350/787 order of 80–100 new aircraft evenly between themselves, this could provide both carriers with a total of up to 27,180 seats, depending on the type of aircraft purchased. This would represent an increase of over 11,100 seats compared with the combined total on their existing fl eets of A330/A340 and MD-11/B747 aircraft.
Acquisition rumours Moreover, just as Air France was revealing its summer schedule, a report in the London-based Daily Telegraph newspaper stated that Air France-KLM, and Delta, were in discussions about launching a possible joint bid for Virgin Atlantic, although both airlines have
publicly refrained from making any comment on the report. Should the group go ahead and purchase the airline, it would obtain a number of potential routes into Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa), Asia and Australasia (Australia, China, India and Japan), plus a signifi cant transatlantic network which includes Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Grenada, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, plus several destinations in the United States.
The adoption of the new summer schedule, the introduction of new aircraft, upgrades to the existing fl eet, plus the purchase of a new mid-sized long-haul airliner, illustrates that Air France has expansion on its mind. Compared with several other European carriers, the airline is also in an enviable position as far as its main hub at Charles de Gaulle is concerned. The airport occupies 32.4 square kilometres of land, and has signifi cant room to expand. Expansion is more diffi cult at Europe’s other major hubs such as London Heathrow. CDG’s room for future expansion could, correspondingly, have major benefi ts for Air France, which could utilise any new terminal facilities in order to enhance and enlarge its operations there.
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