Since June 2004, customers of both Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have benefited from all the advantages of a merger between two major airlines: a dual network giving access to a wider choice of routes and more destinations, to seats at the most attractive fares, and to two very attractive frequent flyer programmes.
As from 31 October 2004, the start of the new winter schedule, the Air France-KLM Group will be extending its customer benefits. Coordinated schedules at Paris-CDG and Schiphol airports will considerably broaden the choice of flight departure times. A shuttle-type service between the two hubs will also improve connecting opportunities. In this way, the coordinated networks of both airlines will enable the Air France-KLM Group to market, under two brands � Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines � a global network of 225 destinations in 130 countries for the benefit of all their customers.
This winter, Air France will be increasing capacity by slightly more than 3% in terms of ASKs (available seat-km)11 Compared to a proforma basis : same number of days in February.
To grow the network, three new B777-300ERs will be phased in during winter2004/2005, in addition to three of the same aircraft delivered last summer.
Regarding the medium-haul fleet, the phasing-out of B727-500s will continue, to be replaced by aircraft from the Airbus A320 family. ThreeAirbus A318s will join the fleet this winter. The capacity increase breaks down as follows: up 3.2% in ASKs on the long-haul network, up 1.3% on the international medium-haul network and up 5.6% on the domestic network.
1) The long-haul network
Many new features have been introduced in the winter schedule to take advantage of the strong economic growth in Asia. They reflect the close cooperation with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
Air France is the first and only European airline to offer daily non-stop service from Paris to four large cities in China : Beijing, Shanghai (in conjunction with China Eastern), Hong Kong and Guang Zhou (in cooperation with China Southern).
Capacity has substantially increased on routes to India, with daily A340 service to Mumbai compared with four weekly flights last winter. The daily flight to Delhi is now operated with the Boeing B747-400.
The reorganization of services with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines focuses mainly on South East Asia, and has resulted in more non-stop flights. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines now operates non-stop service to both Jakarta via Kuala Lumpur and to Manila. These flights will be marketed by Air France and KLM
Royal Dutch Airlines.
Furthermore, Air France has increased capacity to Singapore, while discontinuing the Singapore-Jakarta segment, by using the B777-300ER, fitted with the new Air France l�Espace cabin interiors.
This enables Air France to offer six new Australian destinations via Singapore thanks to an agreement signed with Qantas: Sydney, Melbourne,Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin. Air France operates the Paris-Singapore flights and Qantas those between Singapore and Australia.Flights of both airlines are grouped under the same roof in Singapore � Terminal 1 � to ensure fast, easy connections.
North American routes have undergone the usual seasonal adjustments: a slight drop in frequencies and capacity except to Miami, which benefits from three additional flights, now served ten times a week. The main new feature on Latin American routes concerns Caracas where Air France and KLM royal Dutch Airlines have coordinated their schedules, resulting in a daily service by A340 from Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Air France will increase capacity to Rio de Janeiro by operating a B747-400 instead of the former A340-300.
The code-sharing agreement signed with the Brazillian airline TAM has not been renewed on services between Paris and Sao Paulo, and the frequent flyer programme arrangement between Air France and TAM on flights from France to Brazil will terminate as of 31 October.
There will be few changes on services to Africa and the Middle East (additional frequencies to Kinshasa, Port Harcourt and Cairo).
The Dedicate network has been reinforced to Pointe Noire, Malabo, Doha, Kuwait City and Tashkent.
The recently fitted B747-400s, now boasting the new Air France l�Espace cabin interiors, will join the Caribbean-Indian Ocean network, where services will undergo the usual seasonal adjustments for this time of year.
2) Short and medium-haul network
The short and medium-haul network primarily reflects the coordination of flight times and services between Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The 15 flight schedules (8 AF and 7 KL) between Paris and Amsterdam have been organized to facilitate travel between the two capitals and to optimize connections with long-haul flights on departure from the Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol hubs. In Paris-CDG, these flights will leave from and arrive at Terminal 2F.
In addition, last summer KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Air France launched a twice-daily service between Rotterdam and Paris-CDG as well as new services between Amsterdam and Bordeaux and Amsterdam and Marseille.
Ai France has discontinued services from Paris to Bristol, but this destination remains part of the Group�s network through Amsterdam. The same applies to Glasgow, which will continue to be served through Amsterdam. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has stopped its flights to Casablanca and Turin, which will continue to be served via Paris � Charles de Gaulle.
The changes introduced last summer on European routes from Paris and the French regions to other European destinations and North Africa will be extended to the winter schedule. Spain will have a third daily flight on the Paris-CDG-Vigo route, opened last summer. Since July 2004, Air France has offered four new daily flights to Madrid from Paris-Orly, in conjunction with its partner Air Europa. These flights, running regularly from 7:10 am to 9:35 pm, will increase the number of daily frequencies between Paris and Madrid to 14.
There are now two daily flights from Paris-CDG to Ljubljana in Slovenia. In Italy, Air France is relaunching five daily flights to Milan Malpensa, and has added a daily frequency to Rome in partnership with Alitalia. Together Air France and Alitalia now offer 9 daily code-shared flights to Malpensa and 13 to Rome.
There are also a few changes compared with the summer schedule on the Paris-French regions and inter-regional networks, except for Central and Eastern France services, where flights from Paris-Orly to Grenoble have been discontinued, and those to Lyon upped from 5 to 8. The Paris-Orly - Lyon service will be substantially improved, as it will now consist of one flight every 1 hr 50 min (identical departure times from Lyon and Orly: 6:50am � 8:40am � 10:30am � 12:20pm � 2:10pm � 4pm � 5:50pm � 7:40pm). This new feature offers business travellers greater flexibility when making their travel arrangements.
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