Julian Moxon/PARIS
FRANCE'S REGIONAL Airlines has joined the list of domestic carriers taking advantage of the 1 January liberalisation of French internal routes.
The Nantes-based airline says that it will open several new cross-country routes between Nantes-Lyon, Bordeaux-Marseille, Lyon-Lille and Lyon-Strasbourg in the second quarter.
These routes are already operated by Air Inter Europe at peak times, but they are available for non-peak operations.
Regional, France's fifth largest airline in terms of passenger traffic, will also fly one of its Saab 2000s in the colours of Air Inter Europe on the Lyon-Nice, Nantes-Paris Charles de Gaulle, Nantes-Nice and Nantes-Marseille routes. In March, the airline will open routes to Lisbon, Turin and Milan from French cities.
Regional will take delivery of the first of three Embraer 145 regional jets at the end of 1996, and has options on a further two.
More than 335,000 passengers were carried in 1995 - an increase of 100,000 on 1994. Sales increased by 40% during 1995, to Fr449 million ($90 million).
Other carriers, such as Air Liberte, AOM and TAT, have already signaled their intentions to expand their networks in response to the liberalisation (Flight International, 10-16 January).
Source: Flight International
