There was already the joint venture with Delta Air Lines on the North Atlantic, those with China Eastern and China Southern Airlines on the China-Europe axis or with Air Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There will soon be other joint venture partners for Air France-KLM. Since the summer, we have seen a real boost The Franco-Dutch group is multiplying the number of agreements of this type. At the beginning of October, Air France and Vietnam Airlines have signed a new strategic partnership, which came into effect in November. The commercial part of the agreement provides for improved connectivity between Paris-CDG on the one hand, and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on the other.
A similar agreement should soon follow with Jet AirwaysThis will enable Air France-KLM to work with what Indians consider to be the best local airline. The CEO of Air France recently confirmed that talks were at an advanced stage. Jet Airways and Air France-KLM are already partners on the two new routes linking Paris to Madras (Chennai) and Amsterdam to Bangalore.
Other partnerships could follow, with Kenya Airways in East Africa and GOL on the Europe-Brazil axis. The joint venture model offers a number of commercial advantages over code-sharing agreements. The formula makes it possible to combine fares, share the commercial risks of a route, maximise profitability and benefit from the firepower of each partner in its home market. The end result is to consolidate and enrich the respective networks of each airline.
the European pillar of the world's leading airline network
Air France benefits from Delta's sales force in North America and China Eastern and China Southern's sales force in China. According to the management of Air France-KLM, the aim is to make the airline "the European pillar of the world's leading network of airlines, offering an expanded network and capitalising on the pooling of large distribution networks." In this way, we could talk about the establishment of quasi-monopolies in the airline industry, hidden behind the diversity of the brands present. For example, the strengthening last July of the joint venture with China Eastern should enable Air France to become the European leader in Shanghai, China's largest business market...
