Air France KLM lays out first Transavia plans

The first plans to grow Air France KLM’s low-cost Transavia brand have been revealed in the airline group’s winter schedule.

Capacity for Transavia will increase 13.3% for the winter 2014/15 compared to last year, while capacity on Air France, KLM and Hop! will see a 0.7% boost.

Short and medium-haul capacity at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schpihol will increase 3.1% although point-to-point services will drop 11.3%.

Instead the focus will be shifted on Transavia particularly in Paris linking the city to the likes of Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Budapest and Madrid.

Long-haul growth will also take priority with extra capacity to Miami, Atlanta, Mexico City, Panama City, Pointe-a-Pitre, Fort-de-France, Bangkok, Wuhan and Kuala Lumpur.

In Africa capacity will be slightly down as its drops flights to Harare, Zimbabwe and Lusaka, Zambia, although services to Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Reunion Island and Mauritius are up.

Capacity will also drop in the Middle East but its partnership with Etihad will mean more seats to Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

“Our ambition is clear: to develop, as part of the deployment of our growth and competitiveness plan Perform 2020, an airline group that is among the industry leaders. To win back all of our markets, we need to take action on two major, complementary areas,” said Alexandre de Juniac, chairman and CEO of Air France-KLM. “Firstly, we must continue the move upmarket of all our products and services, to return as soon as possible to the highest international level. Secondly, we must accelerate the development of our “low-cost leisure” activity, with the strong growth of Transavia in France.”

The winter season also marks the introduction of several new ‘upmarket’ upgrades to the airline group’s aircraft. KLM has fitted World Business Class seats to 22 of its Boeing 747s and is rolling out the new seat on its B777-300s.

Meanwhile Air France continues to roll out its new ‘Best’ cabins which will be on its B777s.