How do you view the current economic climate and its impact on business travel?
Patrick Diemer - If you look closely at the figures, there is no economic crisis at the moment. Business travel is flourishing at the moment. You read the newspapers, you see that everyone is worried, but for the moment there is no crisis in business travel, even if that may change. I don't think the situation we saw in 2008-2009 will be repeated. We may experience a slowdown, but there will still be growth. I even think that the number of trips will increase in 2012. All you have to do is look at the market situation worldwide: there's no crisis in Asia; the United States is in an average situation, but it's been going on for some time, and I don't think it will get any worse. So I'm rather optimistic.
How do you view the proliferation of ancillary fees, and how do you respond to business travellers?
Patrick Diemer - Two new products were recently introduced at AirPlus, the corporate debit card and Speed off Pay, a service that allows you to arrange your payments according to your needs. We launched these new tools following the introduction of taxes on credit card transactions by a growing number of airlines. This had already been the case for some time in many low-cost airlines, but there was a turning point when KLM imitated this approach in the Netherlands, followed by British Airways, Finnair, and soon the Lufthansa group, in November. Our customers don't like it, and neither do we. So we launched these products to restore free transactions. I think this trend will become widespread among airlines, at least in countries where it is permitted by law. This is not the case in France, so I don't think Air France will be joining the movement, but given the money that carriers have made in the United States from ancillary fees, I think this is something that the European market will have to get used to, and for some time to come. These fees create two major problems for our customers: when they book a ticket, they no longer know how much the journey will cost. If you compare a flight advertised at €150 on a GDS with another at €200, there's no guarantee that the first option will end up being cheaper. The other problem is reconciliation, when it comes to analysing travel expenditure. But on this point, another Air Plus innovation can help them: ancillary fee reporting, which offers our customers greater clarity.
What are the future challenges for AirPlus?
Patrick Diemer - We are very satisfied with our development in 2011: we have achieved good growth in all our markets, including France. Our ambition is to maintain this growth in 2012. 2010 has been a very good year, as has 2011 so far, with a growth rate of around 30% at the end of September. So we are very satisfied with our growth, even if we are becoming a little more cautious in our forecasts for 2012. It's still important for us to continue to innovate, and one of the main challenges is to provide customers with a mobile offering for their spending and payments.
What about trains, now that the rail market has been opened up?
Patrick Diemer - It's already possible to pay for rail travel with AirPlus offers. The key to success lies in the quality of the data. That's what our customers appreciate, and I think it's a service that we provide much better than our competitors: the quality of the data that accompanies each transaction. Nevertheless, in the rail sector, it's true that there is still room for improvement. The quality of data for air travel is excellent, but for rail travel it still depends very much on the rail company our customers travel with. The system works very well with Germany, with Swissrail, and we have also started with SNCF, but not yet at the same level. We're also looking at Eurostar and Thalys. This is very important for AirPlus as our customers are increasingly using the train during their business trips in Europe.
What role do environmental concerns play in the current context?
Patrick Diemer - There's a lot of discussion around this subject. Steps are being taken, but on a very modest scale. With the obligation for French companies to present their carbon footprint at the end of the year, AirPlus has introduced, in addition to offsetting, a reporting offer to help them set up their footprint. Companies talk a lot about carbon footprints and offsetting, but far fewer actually implement them. Some do, and do it effectively, but they are in the minority.
