Following their merger last week, Air France and KLM are to introduce a revised shuttle service next month between their hubs at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol to fly 15 services a day between the airports.
"We have spread the flights over the day, whereas in the past we were flying wing to wing. With the better spread we have a better service for the customer, but by making operating efficiencies, we can save costs," says KLM chief executive Leo van Wijk. The merger will create the world's largest airline by revenue between them Air France and KLM had sales of $19.2 billion in 2002, the last year for which data are available, compared with American Airlines' $17.3 billion in sales.
In June the partners will revise their short-haul operations to reflect KLM's strength in the UK and northern Europe, and Air France's stronger position in southern Europe. KLM will drop its Schiphol-Turin and Schiphol-Casablanca services, while Air France will drop two unprofitable UK routes, Paris-Bristol and Paris-Glasgow. Air France will start three daily Bordeaux-Amsterdam services and two daily Marseilles-Amsterdam services, while KLM will begin twice daily flights from Charles de Gaulle to Rotterdam.
The partners hope that the merger will increase annual operating income by up to €495 million ($602 million) in the next five years, and are also aligning their frequent-flyer programmes (FFP) and offering reciprocal e-ticketing.
The reform of their long-haul networks will see Air France dropping its Paris-Manila service with a stopover in Bangkok this winter, and instead add its code to a KLM daily non-stop flight from Amsterdam to Manila. Similarly, KLM will next month suspend its own flights to Caracas, and codeshare on a daily Air France service to the Venezuelan capital.
However, there has been no attempt yet to seek wider antitrust agreement linking Air France and KLM with their US partners - Delta Air Lines for the French carrier; Continental and Northwest airlines for KLM. "We have deliberately chosen a phased implementation," says van Wijk, citing Air France and KLM's existing agreements with Delta and Northwest respectively.
KLM will join the SkyTeam Alliance, led by Air France and Delta, in September, van Wijk says. Air France chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta says SkyTeam partner Alitalia could also become part of the merged airline at some point, but only if it were privatised and on a better financial footing.
GRAHAM DUNN / PARIS
Source: Flight International
