PARIS
(Reuters) - Air France (AIRF.PA) formally launched on Monday its new “Joon”
lower-cost airline, which the company hopes will attract a younger clientele
and restore
some routes to profitability.
Air France
said on Monday that Joon would start off by flying to six destinations.
Starting
from December 1, Joon will fly to four cities in Europe - Barcelona, Berlin,
Lisbon and Porto. It will then fly to Fortaleza in Brazil and the Seychelles
from the end of March 2018.
Single fares
to the European cities will start from 39 euros, while fares to Brazil and the
Seychelles will range from 249-299 euros respectively.
Jean-Marc
Janaillac, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air France-KLM and Chairman
of Air France, poses next to the logo of the new "Joon" lower-cost
airline during a news conference in Paris, France, September 25, 2017.
REUTERS/Charles Platiau
Joon will be
hiring 1,000 cabin crew staff between now and 2020, Air France chief executive
Franck Terner told reporters. The airline will initially use A340 aircraft on
long-haul routes and switch to more modern A350 planes from 2019.
Joon, which
is targeting the ‘Millennials’ generation, will be run by Jean-Michel Mathieu,
who has been involved with the project since the start and has held various
positions in sales, digital and revenue management within the Air France-KLM
group.
Air France
wants to bring down costs in order to compete better against Gulf carriers on
long-haul routes, and against budget carriers on short-haul routes.
Other
airlines stepping up their low-cost offerings include British Airways’ owner
IAG (ICAG.L), Lufthansa’s (LHAG.DE) Eurowings and Canada’s WestJet (WJA.TO),
while problems at Ryanair (RYA.I) have also highlighted the fight for
passengers in the sector.
In July, Air
France-KLM offered optimism on pricing for the rest of the year, after good
travel demand resulted in better than expected second-quarter profit.
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