2023-10-18 07:05:23
Aurélien Fleurot with AFP // Photo credits: Artur Widak / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP
modified to
7:35 p.m., October 18, 2023
Air France will leave Orly airport in 2026 and consolidate its operations at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, with the exception of connections to Corsica, the company announced on Wednesday, justifying this decision by a “structural drop in Requirement”.
Six lines from Orly will be eliminated, three towards Overseas (Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France and Saint-Denis de La Réunion) and three others in mainland France (Toulouse, Marseille and Nice). The “low-cost” of the French airline group, Transavia, will take over to the latter three from the same airport, Air France said in a press release.
Transavia will become “the reference operator of the Air France Group”
Transavia will thus become “the Air France Group’s reference operator from Paris-Orly airport. Transavia will continue its development trajectory, in particular thanks to the ramp-up of its new fleet made up of Airbus A320neo family “, detailed the group. Air France-KLM ordered no less than 100 Airbus A320s and A321neos at the end of 2021, in particular to grow the Transavia France fleet, previously equipped with Boeing 737 NGs of which it operates 71 examples.
Since the health crisis, companies have struggled to regain their attendance
If the demand for travel for leisure and family reasons has exploded since the health crisis, benefiting low-cost airlines throughout Europe, traditional companies have struggled to regain their attendance, in particular on short routes and trips for reasons professionals. “The development of videoconferencing, the reduction in professional domestic travel and the shift to the train (…) lead to a structural fall in demand on Air France’s point-to-point domestic network,” said justified the company, which had already recently reduced its number of daily rotations between Orly and Marseille.
“Between 2019 and 2023, the drop in traffic on domestic routes departing from Orly is -40%, and even -60% for daytime round trips,” revealed the company, attributing this disaffection to “the “combined effect of sobriety recommendations and CSR (social and environmental responsibility, Editor’s note) policies of companies”.
Air France is banking on its Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle platform
These figures are consistent with those of the Paris airport manager, Groupe ADP, which during the first nine months of the year on domestic routes only found 75.7% of the number of passengers for the corresponding period of 2019. For its part, Orly is operating slightly above pre-crisis levels, at 100.3% of 2019 passengers since the start of 2023.
Air France, whose domestic routes are generally in deficit although the Air France-KLM group has returned to profit in 2022 following the health crisis, wants to capitalize on its Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle platform for connections between its networks international and French.
Exception to this movement, the connections to Corsica, “in accordance with the specifications of the Public Service Delegation (DSP): Air France connections to/from Corsica would remain assured from Paris-Orly”, explained the company, candidate with Air Corsica for the renewal of this system from 2024.
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