Air France (AF, Paris CDG) will accelerate the growth of its LCC subsidiary, Transavia France (TO, Paris Orly), in a bid to capture a significant share of the European budget traveller market CEO Alexandre de Juniac has said. Speaking during the presentation of his airline's financial results for the first half of this year, de Juniac told a press conference in Paris last week that the Air France-KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol) Group's new Perform 2020 five year plan will focus on maintaining its position in long-haul markets in the face of competition from Gulf carriers while moving to consolidate and enhance its short-haul European market share.
"The consolidation of the low-cost sector is underway and we want to take part," he told Reuters. "The idea is to be in the leading group of European low-cost carriers, given that aviation is a business where size is important."
The CEO revealed that Transavia France is growing more rapidly than its Dutch counterpart, Transavia Airlines (HV, Amsterdam Schiphol), though this is largely due to the latter's switch from primarily relying on charter traffic with tour operators to becoming a scheduled LCC. Transavia's growth potential could be further unlocked should talks with its French pilots concerning contractual restrictions on the number of aircraft Transavia can operate, succeed.
Air France also plans to consolidate its short-haul point-to-point operations with those of HOP! (France) (A5, Paris CDG) which, while functioning as a single business unit, will still operate as two distinct brands.
Full details of the Perform 2020 programme will be announced in September.
