Air France - KLM to increase capacity for Winter season

Air France-KLM’s capacity plans for the Winter 2008-09 season reflect the impact of the slowdown in global economic growth and the rise in oil prices.

Long-haul programme

Americas network
Capacity will rise by 3.5% on the North Atlantic, of which 3.0% linked to the transfer of the CDG-JFK flight previously operated by Delta, which takes to six the number of daily flights between Roissy and New York operated by Air France (five to JFK and one to Newark).

All routes launched during the Summer will be maintained (London-Los Angeles with five flights per week versus seven during the Summer season, Roissy-Salt Lake City and Lyon-New York, the latter two being operated by Delta).

Based on the success of the joint-venture with Northwest, KLM will increase capacity on the North Atlantic by 6% this Winter.

On the Mexico and Buenos Aires routes, capacity operated by Air France will rise with the entry into service of B777-300 ERs, while it will decline on the Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo routes, which will be partly served by A330-200s.

The weekly flights to Panama City launched during the Summer by KLM will rise from three to five as of December 1st 2008. Three flights out of seven between Amsterdam and Sao Paulo will be operated by B777-300 ERs, replacing B777-200 Ers, while weekly flights to Lima will rise from six to seven flights.

Africa and Middle East network

Air France will increase capacity by 2.2% on the Africa network, adding a flight to each of Kinshasa (4/7), Niamey (4/7) and Ouagadougou (7/7) and putting into service a larger aircraft on the Bangui route (A340-300).

KLM will increase capacity to Africa by 3.7%, notably to Kilimanjaro and Dar Es Salaam, by bringing into service a combination of Boeing 777-200 ERs and 300 ERs.

The rationalisation of the Teheran route with the suspension of flights from Paris will lead to a decline in capacity on the Middle East of 2.7% relative to the Winter 2007-08 season. Tehran will continue to be served by KLM from Amsterdam with an additional weekly flight, taking the total to five.

Air France flights to Dubai will increase (two flights per day) and Cairo (12 flights per week). Excluding Teheran, the increase in capacity to the Middle East will be 6.1%.

Asia network

Air France will increase its capacity to Asia by 1.4% this Winter thanks to the introduction of the B777-300ER on the night-flight to Hong Kong and the twice daily flight to Shanghai launched this Summer. For the Winter 2008-09 season, Air France-KLM will offer four daily flights to Shanghai, bringing the total number of flights to China to 69 per week.

Caribbean and Indian Ocean network

Capacity on the Caribbean and Indian Ocean network will remain stable. Medium haul network Taking into account the weaker demand in this period, capacity on the medium-haul network will be reduced by 1.5% relative to Winter 2007-08, particularly between Christmas and the New Year and in January

(*) The Winter 2008-2009 season (26-Oct-08 – 28-Mar-09) is one day shorter than last year. The impact on activity is –0.7 points.


(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 12-Sep-08