Air France-KLM leisure subsidiary Transavia is to take on more medium-haul leisure destinations served by Air France after a successful test on four routes, says its French arm's chief executive Antoine Pussiau.
He describes the arrangement under which services to Tunis, Naples, Venice and Lisbon are shared between the two airlines - and marketed by both - as a "wing-to-wing" partnership. Flightglobal Pro data shows that of the six weekly Transavia France flights to Tunisia's capital from Paris Orly, one is operated by Air France and the other five by the leisure carrier.
"There are some markets which are really fitting our network, which are leisure point-to-point [and] which we could operate without jeopardising the business of Air France - which is mainly done in Paris Charles de Gaulle as part of its connections with long-haul," he says.
Speaking at the French Connect 2013 conference in Bordeaux, Pussiau says "we decided to launch these routes for it [Air France] to be on the market and obviously to keep this market in Air France-KLM instead of letting it go to some competitors". He says the four routes were "done as a test and, as the results are quite positive, we hope we will be able to add new 'wing-to-wing' leisure routes". However, he adds: "This has to be done in agreement with Air France - and especially the unions in Air France - so it is not so easy."
In July 2012, Air France began offering its pilots the equivalent of five to six months of salary to transfer to Transavia France. Those who switched have kept the same salaries they earned at Air France, but work around 15% more hours.
However, Pussiau denies that with its lower unit costs Transavia France could take over Air France's medium-haul operations. "What we will do in that [arrangement] is just what we do today, which is leisure point-to-point. If we see some routes which are fitting in our business model we can fly, but if it is out of our model we won't fly," he says.
Pussiau says Transavia France's strategy is to position itself as "a hybrid leisure airline mainly working for tour operators and also selling seats on the internet. We are not targeting business travellers, we are not targeting connections, we are not feeding any hub, so we want to develop our network on our model, which is point-to-point leisure." The airline, he adds, is low-cost "in the sense that we are using the model of low-cost, outsourcing most of our operations at the airport, using one type of airplane, providing a very simple product". As the Transavia brand gains a higher profile in France, he hopes to increase the percentage of seats sold directly to consumers through its website, which he says currently stands at 45%, with the other 55% sold through tour operators.
Growth in leisure services from French regional airports is where Pussiau sees most potential for expansion for his airline and where he feels its low unit costs could help the Air France-KLM group compete for leisure traffic with the likes of EasyJet, Ryanair, Volotea and Vueling. In order to do so, he says, the airline is growing its fleet by "three or four airplanes per year. This year we are adding three airplanes so we now are at 11, next year we have already ordered three so it will be 14 and then we will be around 20-22 [aircraft] by 2016". Transavia France's fleet is comprised solely of Boeing 737-800s, each equipped with 186 seats in economy configuration.
Earlier this year, while in his former role as head of Air France, Air France-KLM chief executive Alexandre de Juniac indicated that changes will be made to Air France's regional bases in September, after a review of operations is complete. This is likely to include a cut in routes and aircraft at the three bases, situated in Marseille, Nice and Toulouse.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
