Air France may launch a budget airline offering French customers cheap flights to Europe and North Africa, according to media reports. - (11/20/2006)
The proposed start-up would be jointly owned by Air France and KLM.
It is being said that the airline is mulling over plans for a French launch of Transavia.com, the KLM-owned budget airline currently operating out of the Netherlands. If approved at a board meeting later this month, Transavia would offer scheduled and charter flights from Paris to Spain, Morocco and Tunisia, reported bbc.co.uk.
Air France has not yet said how much it would be prepared to invest in the business or when it would begin services, added the report.
“This initiative will meet with the demand for scheduled flights to leisure destinations not presently served by Air France,” the airline reportedly said. “It would also fit in very well with the growth strategy of transavia.com, which has for some time been planning to operate from additional bases outside the Netherlands.”
“Transavia.com, which has operating bases at Amsterdam Schiphol, Rotterdam and Eindhoven airports, has been seeking to expand beyond the Netherlands, and the base at Paris Orly will be the first such move. Air France said it would maintain the Transavia.com brand for the French operation, which would be owned 60 percent by Air France and 40 percent by Transavia.com. It will be French registered with personnel working under French labour contracts in an effort to avoid conflicts with Air France’s heavily entrenched trades unions,” reported FT.com.
The report added: “A spokeswoman for Transavia.com said the Dutch side would contribute expertise in running a hybrid charter and low cost scheduled operation and was expected to run areas such as aircraft maintenance and pilot training. Air France said the French Transavia.com subsidiary would operate a fleet of 186-seat Boeing 737-800s from Paris Orly south terminal. Flights would be sold both to package tour operators and to individual passengers via the internet and call centres. It would be launched next spring with a network of scheduled leisure routes from Paris to Spain, Morocco and Tunisia as well as a Paris-based holiday charter business.”
