You have a perspective from the Belgium side by thinking that everything is perfect at Air France. And that the airline is invincible. Air France has not succeeded in everything and it has closed some long haul routess in recent years (Kuala Lumpur, Amman, Seychelles, Damas, Brasilia, Teheran, Guangzhou, Chennai, Taipei, Wuhan, Male, Colombo, Muscat, Jeddah, Ryad, Monrovia, Banjul, Freetown, Montevideo, Santo Domingo)JOVAN2 wrote: ↑09 May 2024, 19:00 DELTA KLM AF has over 35 destination in USA and DN.
With sometimes 2 or 3 flights a day.
Also UK is primary market, as Scandinavia and Poland.
AMS and CDG are huge Hubs with many African destinations.
Thanks to genius CS and his sergeants SN stands there in its underwear.
UA would already have done a lot more if BRU and SN were worth it. LH has treated SN as a leprosis airline for over 15 years now, systematically exhausting them as a vulture-shareholder.
You may continue with your gaslighting adoration of LH. Result will be zero for SN.Nada.
Air France is probably more criticized in France (member of parliament, independent commission, ministers, population) than Brussels Airlines in Belgium
Back to Africa
I don't invent anything, i m not pro LH, i just repeat what Ben Smith (which if i m right the Air France CEO who has the access to all data) has said about Air France network in Africa. The AF network in Africa is probably huge but not adapted to the current trend.
Focused on the former French Colonial Empire, low frequencies on many routes, too many tags service and probably before the arrival of B Smith many routes were served by Aircraft not retrofited with new cabins.
Douala and Yaounde could have a better capacity by using bigger aircraft but you have tag the flights with Bangui and Malabo by using the A330-200. Strange since they dropped OUA, Accra is more and more served by 777-200ER replacing the A330 operated via OUA
Niamey (suspended), N’Djamena, Nouakchott Bangui, Ouagadougou (suspended), Cotonou (in the winter) are not served daily. Djibouti only one flight a week. And they are not most competitve market in Africa.
Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines or Qatar Airways are rubing their hands. Turkish Airlines is non African airline which has the biggest network in Africa.
Since the arrival of B Smith, Air France has opened a regional HQ in Kenya (https://theaviator.co.ug/air-france-klm ... n-nairobi/) like...... Lutfhansa Group did, started to target premium customer (https://www-lechotouristique-com.transl ... r_pto=wapp)
Since the crisis in late 2000s, AF was not focused to Africa. The arrival of Ben Smith late 2010s has seen AF back to Africa.
Interview of B Smith about Africa network
he looked at Air France’s Africa network, one of the company’s jewels. France no longer rules much of the continent, but Air France retains air rights other airlines covet.
Smith didn’t like what he saw. In his previous job, as chief operating officer of Air Canada, he preferred simplicity and consistency, and Air France’s network is, well, complicated. Many routes operate less than daily, and some go in a circle, like AF 775, which twice weekly departs Paris for Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, before stopping in Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon, and sitting for about four hours before returning home.
Sometimes there are reasons for odd routings, like security concerns, but worldwide, Smith said, the airline’s operation is more complex than it needs to be, a reason the carrier underperforms its peers on many financial metrics.
“You go look at the Air France African network and you just go, ‘What is this?'” Smith said. “It’s like this tangled web.”
https://skift.com/2019/07/02/new-air-fr ... ir-france/He’s not the first person to notice Air France’s complexity. Rivals often talk about the airline’s potential, saying they envy its strengths, including its iconic brand, vast global route network, and Paris hub. But since its 2004 merger with KLM, Air France has languished as its two main European rivals overhauled their businesses. Rivals have cut bloated infrastructure; Air France retains a legendary bureaucracy.
