MARK PILLING / PARIS
Direct flights launched to offer executives non-stop travel to energy hotspots
Air France has launched a tailor-made product called Dedicate, which uses five specially configured Airbus A319s flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport to destinations to suit major oil and gas corporations.
The first flights to Pointe Noire in the Republic of the Congo and Malabo in Equatorial New Guinea in West Africa started in late January. Bruno Matheu, Air France executive vice-president network management and marketing, says the aim of Dedicate is to offer professionals in the energy business regular direct flights to their "oil platforms". Other destinations to be offered over the coming year, which are all new non-stop routes for Air France, are Kuwait; Doha, Qatar; Kish Island, Iran; Atyrau, Kazakhstan; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. These countries all have booming oil and gas industries.
Air France was first encouraged by its large corporate clients to launch a dedicated product in 1997, but the timing was not right for a carrier that was undergoing a fundamental rebuilding, says Matheu. The project was "not too far from launch" in 2001, but was delayed. It was resurrected in 2003 and given the go-ahead by the carrier's board in June.
Using 82-seat A319LRs (Long Range), Dedicate will have five aircraft in service by the end of its first full year of operation, during which the carrier is expected to carry 60,000-70,000 passengers, says Matheu, who adds that the fleet could eventually grow to up to 15 aircraft.
However, the concept will not be transferred to target transatlantic business traffic as Lufthansa has done in operating all-business class services between Germany and the USA. "This is not part of our prospects," says Matheu. Air France prefers to concentrate on feeding transatlantic business traffic through its Paris CDG hub.
Source: Flight International
