"No airline today can escape the imperative need to transform itself in order to achieve productivity gains in the face of increasingly aggressive competition": Cédric Pastour's assessment on 23 October was unequivocal. And the consequences will not be long in coming. From 26 October, operations on the Paris-Moscow route will be suspended in response to "the decline in profitability of the route, which has been hard hit by the Ukrainian crisis", according to the press release published on Thursday. As for the inauguration of a Paris-Beijing route - which has been in the pipeline since HNA acquired a stake in the company - the project seems to have been shelved, at least for the medium term. "The situation is now totally blocked as regards the possibility of flying over Siberia," explains Cédric Pastour. "Aigle Azur can no longer depend on a hypothetical authorisation to fly over Russia in a context of tense bilateral relations. The African market should ultimately be the big winner in the airline's strategic repositioning: "Aigle Azur is currently working on a project to redeploy its long-haul business, which could be announced in mid-2015 and which would focus on African destinations, with Bamako, operated by the airline since 2007, as its first destination" also warns Cédric Pastour.
