HOP!-Airlinair (Paris Orly), HOP!-Brit Air (Morlaix), and HOP!-Régional (Clermont-Ferrand) will indeed be merged into their parent - HOP! (France) (A5, Paris CDG) - with the process to commence early next year an airline spokesman has told France's Le Monde newspaper. The move is part of Groupe Air France's drive to recover profitability in the short-haul market by adequately competing with competition from high speed rail, cars, and budget carriers such as Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) and easyJet (London Luton).

Airlinair (Paris Orly), Brit Air (Morlaix), and Régional (Nantes) were brought under the HOP! umbrella in 2013 with all three carriers agreeing to become a simplified joint stock company governed by HOP!. Each of their boards was in turn replaced by an executive council chaired by HOP! CEO, Lionel Guerin. But, while their managerial structures have been integrated, all three carriers have continued to exist as three distinct legal entities operating from three different bases - Paris Orly, Morlaix, and Nantes - under three distinct Air Operators Certificates (AOC).

Announced in November of last year, Air France had planned to implement the consolidation this summer with the resulting new super-subsidiary to be called HOP! Air France. As such, the merging process is expected to begin "at the end of first quarter of 2016" with its completion now scheduled for mid-2017, the spokesman said.

Initial projections estimate that HOP! Air France should post an operating income of EUR15 million (USD16.5 million) 'within three years, against an operating loss of more than EUR125 million (USD137.6 million) in 2014.'

Personnel-wise, HOP! Air France will consolidate Air France's Point-to-Point teams in Paray Vieille Poste, near Paris Orly, and HOP!'s teams in Rungis, into a single centre in Montreuil, east Paris, close to French-market sales-agents. Roughly 245 jobs will be lost in the process including eighty-five in MRO, eighty in Flight Crew and eighty in ground handling, the spokesman added. Among the units most affected by the merger downsizing is HOP!-Brit Air where up to 100 positions will be culled.

By summer 2016, HOP! Air France's fleet will also be reduced by five machines to seventy-seven (eighty-seven including reserves and leases).