Air France Launches New Flight Route from Paris to Freetown

Air France last week launched twice-weekly service from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Freetown and commenced twice-weekly CDG-Monrovia flights. Both new routes are via Conakry. AF last week increased CDG-CKY service to daily, of which four weekly flights are nonstop and three are via Nouakchott. Flights to CKY, NKC, FNA and MLW are being operated by an Airbus A330-200 with 208 seats in a three-class configuration, including 40 seats in business, 21 in premium economy and 147 in economy.

“After the launch of flights to Kigali by KLM in October 2010, these two new Air France routes and the daily service to Guinea illustrate the confidence Air France KLM has in the development of the West African region,” AF KLM SVP-Africa and Middle East Pierre Descazeaux stated.

AF KLM ASKs to/from Africa for its summer schedule are slated to be up 4% over the 2010 summer schedule. The airline group now operates to 38 destinations in Africa.

Separately, AF put its 60th Boeing 777 into service. 777s make up over half of its long-haul fleet, which also comprises 13 747s, 15 A330s, 16 A340s and four A380s.

Air France Introduces Direct Flights to Cape Town

Welcome news for leisure and business tourism to Cape Town is Air France’s announcement that they will commence direct flights to Cape Town from November, starting with three flights a week. This announcement comes at the back of Emirates’ addition of an additional daily flight to and from Cape Town from late last month. Air France and Emirates have extensive routes from both our traditional source markets in Europe and new markets in the Middle East and increased flights will add much-welcomed seat capacity to the Mother City. Earlier this year Edelweiss Air had also announced a new seasonal flight programme from Zurich to Cape Town with non-stop flights twice a week from the end of October 2011 for their winter timetable.

In order to sustain tourism in Cape Town, we need to counter seasonality with year-round inbound tourism. It is vital that flights to Cape Town remain consistent throughout the year. In an ever-changing world time has become our most precious commodity. The availability of direct flights to Cape Town will influence traveler behaviour and buying patterns and is critically important for the long-term sustainability of our business and leisure tourism industries.

Cape Town Tourism already embarked on changing seasonal perception; leveraging visitor and media perception during the winter World Cup to assist us in broadening our tourism appeal. Events and Business Tourism also play a significant role in positioning Cape Town as a year-round destination of choice. The pressing need for a comprehensive and proactive events and business tourism strategy for the city in the aftermath of hosting a successful World Cup is becoming more apparent. Events are important platforms for destination marketing, branding and catalysts to counter seasonality. We need to look at a more strategic relationship with existing signature events and establishing or attracting key events within our off-peak season.

Airlines must make economic sense. When a flight is cancelled this is the reason. Decreased business travel, as a result of troubled economies, continues to plague key source markets. The business traveller is a major contributor to covering flight expenses, which points to a need to work hard on forging stronger business ties in addition to the leisure market.

Perception does not shift overnight – and it needs proof – the industry must stand together to tackle our tourism weaknesses and grow a more complex offering of product to multiple markets. Visitors need to see that Cape Town is a year-round destination for a thousand good and different reasons.

Western Cape Tourism Announce More Direct Flights to Cape Town

Western Cape Tourism MEC Alan Winde on Wednesday said there is increased confidence in the travel industry as more international airlines are jetting into Cape Town.

Air France announced it would start flying directly from Paris to Cape Town three times a week, from early November.

Swiss carrier Edelweiss Air, Turkish Airlines and Emirates recently announced direct flights to Cape Town.

Winde said the new airline movement is a definite indication that tourism will get boosted.

“All these increases are market driven. If the market was not there, they would not do it,” he said.

Winde added that airlines would have done thorough research to determine the viability of the new routes like Paris to Cape Town.

Air France Start Daily Flight Paris to Washington D.C. With Airbus A380 in June

Washington D.C. will get its first Airbus A380 service on June 6 when Air France starts daily flights between Paris and Washington Dulles International Airport.

The Air France flights, using a brand-new, 516-seat A380, will feature four classes. The aircraft will be configured with nine seats in La Première (first class); 80 seats in Affaires-Business (business class); 38 seats in Premium Voyageur (premium economy); and 389 seats in the A380?s Voyageur (economy-class) cabin. There are more seats in the economy cabin alone than in most long-haul intercontinental aircraft.

Air France’s Premium Voyageur – located between Business and Economy – offers passengers 40 per cent more space than does Voyageur. Premium Voyageur provides fixed-shell seating for privacy, a 19-inch wide seat that reclines to 123 degrees, a 39.8-inch seat pitch, noise-canceling headsets, 10.4-inch screens, a PC outlet and a business-class amenity kit. Passengers also have priority check-in and boarding.

Premium Voyageur, not yet on the Air France A380 serving New York JFK, offers business travelers who are not allowed to travel in Affaires-Business some business-class amenities nevertheless. Air France now offers its Premium Voyageur cabin on most of its long-haul aircraft, including its Boeing 777s and Airbus A330s and A340s.

The new A380 will also feature Air France’s new business class. Debuting throughout 2011 on other aircraft, the carrier’s new Affaires-Business cabin offers improved lie-flat seats; better connectivity, with USB ports and power; a new subdued, cabin ambience and more dining choices.

Washington will be Air France’s fifth A380 destination from Paris, It currently serves New York JFK, Tokyo and Johannesburg, and will be starting A380 service to Montreal on April 22. The carrier currently operates four Airbus A380s and is taking delivery of two more for the new Washington and Montreal flights.

Because the Airbus A380 seats so many more passengers than other long-haul aircraft, Air France will rationalize its capacity on its Washington D.C. and Montreal routes with the entry of the new airliner. Weekly frequencies between Paris and Montreal will decrease from 28 to 20 when the A380 starts services in April, and Washington frequencies will drop from 21 to 14 beginning June 6.

Washington Dulles is ready for service by the large-capacity, according to officials of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). The airport authority needed to design special jetbridges for the large, double-decker aircraft, install a new hydrant fuel pit for its refueling, and modify some taxiways, including relocating some lights and signs. The airport’s runways were long enough and strong enough for the plane.

An official for the MWAA said that when the airport’s underground Aero Train system was built to carry travelers between terminals, the structure of the tunnels was made strong enough so that no tunnel modifications would be necessary in order for them to bear the A380?s high weight.

Air France will use two adjacent gates for the A380 in the A concourse at Dulles – with gate A20 to be used for boarding lower-deck passengers and A22 for upper-deck passengers.

A test run of the A380-800 at Dulles was performed in March 2007, when Lufthansa brought the A380 to the airport during a series of route-proving flights. Lufthansa doesn’t currently operate the A380 to Washington.

Substantially larger than the Boeing 747-400, the four-engine, wide-body A380 is 239 feet long, 80 feet high and has a wingspan of 262 feet. Inside, the cabin is 164 feet long on the main deck, 147 feet long on the upper deck.

The A380 first went into service in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. Besides Air France and Lufthansa, it also is operated by Emirates and Qantas. Korean Air is scheduled to begin operating the A380 this year.

Air France-KLM Cargo Operation Result Positive, Airlines Plans Increase Cargo Volume 3.4 percent

Sharply higher margins drive recovery into final three months of 2010

Air France-KLM’s cargo unit swung to an $81.6 million operating profit in the final three months of 2010 from a $39.5 million loss a year ago, extending a year-long recovery that has been driven by sharply higher margins.

Revenue jumped almost 28 percent to $1.1 billion in the carrier’s fiscal third quarter from $884 million in the year-earlier period.

Traffic rose 4.9 percent in the quarter from a year ago on a 3.8 percent increase in capacity, which boosted the load factor almost one percentage point to 70.4 percent.

Unit revenue per ton of cargo transported gained 27.7 percent in the quarter.

Cargo booked a profit of $106 million in the first nine months of the fiscal year against a $507 million loss a year earlier as revenue soared 35.4 percent to $3.25 billion from $2.4 billion.

Traffic grew only 3.4 percent in the first nine months while unit revenue was up 30.9 percent.

The strong cargo performance contrasted with setbacks at the passenger unit caused by strikes by French air traffic controllers in October and harsh weather in December that resulted in thousands of cancelled flights and pushed Europe’s largest carrier into an unexpected quarterly loss of $62.5 million compared with a loss of $401 million a year earlier.

As a result, Air France-KLM is now forecasting a “positive operating result” for the fiscal year ending March 31 below its previous target of an operating profit of at least $408 million.

The carrier said “security issues” in countries it flies to in Africa, including Niger, Mali and the Ivory Coast and more recently Egypt and Tunisia likely will impact revenue in the current quarter.

Air France-KLM increased cargo volume 3.4 percent year-on-year in January on a 3.3 percent increase in capacity. The increase was substantially smaller than the 17.5 percent growth in January at rival Lufthansa Cargo. Americas traffic rose 5 percent and Asia-Pacific shipments gained 8.4 percent.

“The numerous one-off events (volcano, weather disruptions, air traffic control stoppages and geopolitical events) which have affected the current year do not call into question the structural recovery achieved by the group in 2010,” the airline said. “Our ability to adapt the network to geopolitical constraints remains.”

FAA Reminded American Airlines Aircraft Maintenance Violations

For the second time in a week, the Federal Aviation Administration has announced that it has proposed fining American Airlines for aircraft maintenance violations.

The FAA revealed Thursday that it sent a letter to American last week proposing a $300,000 civil penalty for the maintenance lapses, which could have endangered the aircraft, flight crew and passengers.

American Airlines maintenance workers, the FAA said, failed to properly document a malfunctioning speed indicator on an MD-82 jet in February 2009.

Not knowing about the defective indicator, crews flew the plane five times, including at night and in inclement winter weather. Such flights are allowed under American’s FAA-approved procedures, but only in daylight and clear weather.
Read more

Airlines flying Airbus A330 and A340 Planes

Airlines are replacing airspeed sensors on their Airbus A330 and A340 airliners, which have been a focus of the investigation into the June 1 crash of Air France Flight 447. The only U.S. airlines operating the planes are Northwest, with 32, and US Airways, with 11.
Read more