IATA confirms that the Year 2011 will see a sustainable global economic turnaround started in 2010 fuelled by growth in the emerging countries. Economic uncertainty remains strong and the AIR FRANCE KLM Group remains flexible for the year to come, in order to adapt to this situation.

In this context, the AIR FRANCE KLM Group’s 2011 summer schedule posts a +5.7% growth in capacity in ASK compared with summer 2010 (i.e., only +2,6% ASK compared with pre-crisis level of Summer 2008). This progression is divided between a +6.5% capacity increase in long-haul activity, and a +2.9% growth on medium-haul routes.

New destinations will complete the Group’s network: Xiamen, Miami and Aalborg for KLM, Orlando, Lima, Phnom Penh, Freetown, Monrovia, Bata, Tripoli and Billund for Air France.

“Riding on a wave of positive economic fundamentals and business sentiments, global air transportation has grown strongly with the Asia Pacific region out-performing most regions. Besides increased flight frequencies and capacities, this growth is also driven by new routes in this region. Air France will start its new service to Phnom Penh on 27 March 2011, via Bangkok, with 3 weekly frequencies and a new destination for KLM to Xiamen, the second city of Fujian region. This will be the 8th Chinese route operated by the group.” says Paul Rombeek, AIR FRANCE KLM General Manager Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

The Air France schedule

During summer 2011, Air France will post growth (ASK) in terms of Available Seat Kilometres of +6.1% compared with summer 2010, which brings it back to Summer 2008 level.

On long-haul routes, the growth in capacity is +7.6%. Half of this growth is linked to the productivity generated by the growth in average size of aircraft.

Although global GDP has surpassed its pre-crisis levels, Eurozone GDP remains below the pre-crisis level, with the result that the increase in capacity on the medium-haul network is more moderate (up 1.8%), but is sufficient to meet the expected rise in connecting traffic with the long-haul routes.

The fleet

The fleet rationalization policy initiated during winter 2009 with the entry into operation of the A380 on the New York, Johannesburg and Tokyo routes continues with the pending introduction of the A380 on the Montreal and Washington routes, i.e. 6 aircraft of this type will start operating by the end of the summer season.

In order to align its capacity with demand in Voyageur class while reducing its fuel costs on long-haul flights, Air France has designed a new version of the B777-200 equipped with 309 seats (including 250 in Voyageur cabin), which is replacing the B777-200 with 247 seats (including 170 in Voyageur class). During summer 2011, 11 aircraft featuring this new cabin configuration will progressively be assigned notably to Guangzhou, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Osaka, Santiago and Lima.
The medium-haul cabin transformation programme, characterized in particular by the introduction of a new lighter seat which better meets customers’ expectations, will be completed during summer 2011.

The long-haul schedule (+7.6%)

In North America, capacity is up 6.6%.
Air France will be launching a new destination, Orlando, with 3 weekly frequencies as from 7 June.
Air France is increasing the number of flights to Atlanta, with the addition of a daily flight operated by its own aircraft: our partner Delta’s main hub is now served with 4 daily flights from Paris, including 2 flights operated by Air France.
Air France is also increasing its code-sharing capacity with Delta with the addition of one daily flight to Boston (3rd daily flight) and New York JFK (7th daily flight) operated by Delta.
Finally, Air France continues to rationalize its capacity with the entry into service of the A380 to Montreal, with weekly frequencies decreasing from 28 to 20 as from 22 April, and to Washington, with weekly frequencies dropping from 21 to 14 as from 6 June.

Latin America posts a +13.5% growth in capacity.
As a continuation of the winter schedule, Air France is maintaining the twice-daily service to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Air France will begin a new service to Lima by B777-200, with 5 weekly frequencies starting on 21 June.
Air France is also increasing the number of flights to Santiago with the addition of one weekly frequency by B777-200.

In Asia, growth in capacity is up 10.1%.
In addition to the non-stop service to Vietnam and the addition of one weekly frequency to Bangalore last winter, Air France is opening a service to Phnom Penh, via Bangkok, with 3 weekly frequencies.

In Africa, Air France posts a 4% increase in capacity.
Taking into account the recent events in Mauritania, service to Nouakchott has been adapted, with the previous 5 weekly frequencies by A319 Dedicate being replaced by 3 flights by A330.This structural change on the Nouakchott route is being accompanied by increased frequencies to Conakry (7 weekly flights including 3 via Nouakchott).

Note that Air France is focusing its development on the western continent, notably with the launch of Freetown by A330 (2 weekly flights) and Monrovia via Conakry (2 weekly flights).
Air France is also adding a new destination, Bata* (twice weekly by A319 Dedicate) via Malabo (with 1 daily flight).
Air France is also introducing a service to Tripoli, served 5 times weekly by A320.
Finally, service to Bangui will be once-weekly instead of twice-weekly.
* subject to obtaining traffic rights

In the Middle-East, growth in capacity is 6.8%.
The services to Riyadh and Jeddah initiated in cooperation with Saudi Arabian Airlines (SV) last winter is maintained: Air France continues to operate 7 weekly flights to these destinations, including 3 operated by its own aircraft and 4 on a code-share basis with SV.

Finally, in the Caribbean-Indian Ocean region, Air France is increasing and improving its global capacity (+4.8%).
Air France has added one weekly frequency to Antananarivo.
On the Réunion service, Air France is introducing one daily night flight throughout the summer season, and is adding up to 3 weekly frequencies to cope with peak traffic demand in summer.
On flights to Mauritius, one daytime flight is replaced by one night flight, with 4 weekly frequencies.
Finally, on services to Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort-de-France during the peak summer period, Air France is adding one additional weekly flight, i.e. 2 daily flights to these destinations.

The international medium-haul schedule (+2.1%)

On medium-haul routes, growth is centred on CDG-Europe traffic flows.
Service to Cologne has been operated since January.
This summer, Air France will be operating a new service to Billund, with 3 daily frequencies.
Air France is also adding a daily flight to Moscow and Bilbao (5daily flights instead of the previous 4).
Air France is also increasing the number of flights to Yerevan with the addition of one weekly frequency, bringing its capacity on this destination to 4 weekly flights.
Service to Dublin is being reduced from 7 to 6 weekly flights.

On departure from Strasburg, service to Copenhagen is being suspended.

On routes between France and the Netherlands, there will be an additional daily frequency from Nantes and Marseille to Amsterdam, while a daily frequency between Nice and Amsterdam is being suspended.

The domestic network (+1.5%)

Alongside the adjustments introduced during the winter allowing to operate the Nantes route out of Orly with 4 daily frequencies, there is a trend to reduce frequencies on departure from Orly. As a result, Air France is maintaining 2 out of the 4 daily flights to Annecy, and is suspending one daily frequency on the Marseille, Toulouse and Nice routes.

On departure from Lyon, service to Le Havre is being suspended.

On departure from Bordeaux, Air France is reintroducing a frequency on the Lille route, bringing
capacity up from 3 to 4 daily frequencies.