He was certain that the Aigle Azur's France-Algeria network was going to whet the appetites of the competition. It's done: at the beginning of the week, the CEO of Transavia, Nathalie Stubler confirmed on various radio stations the company's interest in take up a dozen lines operated by the company Aigle Azur. The low-cost carrier already operates a number of routes from Lyon and Nantes to Algeria and intends to position itself on more routes. A position recently confirmed by Anne Rigail stating that " it's a market we're interested in, both for Air France and for Transavia ". Transavia has a good chance of gaining momentum from its Orly, Lyon and Nantes hubs, while Air France could benefit from new routes from Roissy to Constantine and Annaba.
At the same time, ASL also wants to position itself on the France-Algeria route. The airline believes it has a major advantage: its independence from the Air France KLM group, allowing greater competition between a possible Air Algérie-Groupe Air France duopoly. ASL already operates flights from Paris CDG to Algiers and scheduled flights during the summer season from BordeauxPerpignan and Strasbourg to several Algerian cities. Spanish low-cost Vueling also serves the Marseille-Alger route, and could expand to other routes from Marseille.
And finally.., Air Algérie has also expressed an interest in recovering some of its routes. The Algerian national carrier has already provided additional flights to compensate for the closure of Aigle Azur routes - notably to Orly, Lyon and Basel-Mulhouse. The airline's management would like to resume its temporary routes, as it announced to the Algerian daily El Watan.
Eventually, all France-Algeria air routes should return to the same number of weekly flights as last winter. The French and Algerian civil aviation authorities are expected to decide on the reallocation of traffic rights in November. In the meantime, ticket prices are at an all-time high due to the shortage of flights...
