New Air France airline aims for mid-market

Called Joon, it will fly out of Paris Charles-de-Gaulle and target the market between traditional airlines and low-cost Ryanair and Easyjet by working online and hiring lower-paid cabin crew.

It will target ‘Millenials,’ the 18-35 year-old market where Air France says it has missed out – with Joon offering “more than just a flight and a fare... a global travel experience”.

Six medium-haul aircraft will start from Charles-de-Gaulle this autumn, followed by three or four jets on long-haul flights in summer, 2018. By 2020 Joon will have 28 planes, 18 of them A320 medium-haul and 10 long-haul to give an extra 10% long-haul capacity.

Air France said “Joon will not be a low-cost airline as it will offer original products and services that reflect those of Air France.... it is a lifestyle brand and a state of mind.”

More attractive medium-haul flights are aimed to feed passengers from local airports into Air France’s long-haul flights.

One in three of Air France long-haul flights is losing money and four out of five medium-haul services are also in the red and these will become Joon services to make them competitive again.

Joon is aimed to win back business from Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad and Air France said its costs would be 15%-18% lower and some services would be offered to buy on board.

Pilots will continue to be Air France pilots on their present contracts – which can pay up to €18,000 a month compared to €6,000 at Easyjet – but cabin crew will be on reduced terms. Air France human relations director Gilles Gateau said Joon would soon recruit 1,000 staff but 45% cheaper than Air France equivalents.

Destinations and prices will not be known until September so it is not clear if Joon will result in any improvement in services from France to the UK and Ireland – but Air France has pledged to hire 500 cabin crew on CDI contracts for its own services and grow the business.

The union deal comes just two years after Air France bosses were attacked and had shirts ripped off during union talks on cutting costs. A deal then, analysts say, would have saved Air France creating Joon which is just Air France under a new name but with lower overheads and the same old Air France pilots, on the same old pay scales.

Hop! spices up airport fight

Low-cost airline Hop! (part of Air France) has put the cat among the pigeons in the Normandy battle of the airports by opening a new route on August 28 with six flights a week from Rouen Vallée de Seine to Lyon.

Rouen is in a fight for survival with Caen, Deauville and Le Havre airports which are all similar distances from Paris and close to each other and have fears for their futures.

Flights from Rouen to the Hop! hub in Lyon (less busy than the Paris airports) will open up many other French destinations plus some EU countries – but not the UK or Ireland.