Has Aigle Azur weathered the crisis well?
It may seem paradoxical, but small airlines with a niche positioning and a strong customer base that I would describe as 'affinity' have weathered the crisis rather well. At Aigle Azur, we experienced few fluctuations last year, particularly on France-Algeria, our main destination. We even recorded an increase in business class due to the strong development of investments in the country.
What are the strengths of your network?
Algeria has historically been our preferred market. We offer flights to 13 Algerian cities from Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Basel-Mulhouse and Toulouse. In the spring, we opened connections between Mulhouse and Oran and Lille and Tlemcen, and are looking into the possibility of serving Bordeaux. Our second most important market is Portugal, particularly with the acquisition of Air Luxor. We serve four destinations there. Finally, I have high hopes for Bamako, a market we are working on in partnership with Air Mali.
What do you expect from a future service to Baghdad?
There is great potential on this route. We have been working on it for a long time in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There is a real current, not only of business, but also of culture between France and Iraq. We are very well received by the Iraqi civil aviation authority, which is cooperating with us on safety issues. We plan to launch two or three weekly frequencies this autumn from Paris-Orly.
