airlines

Her name is Mildred, she introduces herself as a "travel agent", and she has a strange look described by Lufthansa as "a charming lady wearing glasses, with pink hair in a bun". This is the face of the new chatbot launched by the German group, which aims to make it easier to find the best airfares...

Air France took delivery of its first Boeing B787-9 Dreamliner last Friday. "Welcoming a new aircraft into its fleet is always a great moment in the history of an airline," stresses Franck Terner, CEO of Air France. Quieter, more fuel-efficient - "fuel consumption is 20% lower, which means we can look forward to...

Less than three years after its creation, La Compagnie is joining forces with another French carrier: XL Airways. The two companies have decided to join forces and create a new group - which will also include tour operators Héliades and Crystal - with consolidated sales of over 400 million euros. This merger will not...

We decided a year ago to embark on the adventure of hackathons," explains Patrice About, Head of Ground Innovation at Air France-KLM. From then on, we were faced with an alternative. We could either launch this event for several companies, with the corollary that the subject would often be fairly consensual, or we could organise a private hackathon, which would have been...

The launch of the new flight between Incheon airport (Seoul) and Barcelona El Prat will be a small event, not only for Korean Air, but more generally for relations between Asia and Spain. This will be the first direct link between North-East Asia and the Catalan hub. Three flights...

Singapore Airlines, through Budget Aviation Holdings - its subsidiary which manages its low-cost airline division - will streamline its offering under a single brand. Tigerair will merge these activities with Scoot, SIA's other low-cost subsidiary, keeping only the latter's name. While Tigerair was concentrating on...

In an interview with the media in Singapore, Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew said that the Malaysian national airline would be placing an order for 25 long-haul aircraft in order to meet international demand, particularly from Asia. The order will replace 15 previous-generation aircraft and add capacity with 10 new long-haul...

Nantes airport is attracting particular attention from European carriers. After British Airways, which will be making its grand return to the Loire Atlantique hub on 29 March after a nine-year absence, it is now Lufthansa's turn to display its ambitions. Just one day ahead of its British rival - on March 28...

It took nine years for business travellers in Nantes to be able to board a British Airways aircraft again from Nantes Atlantique Airport. It's been a long wait, according to the people in charge of the hub: "In Nantes and in the Greater West of France, we've never seen a British Airways aircraft fly from...

The new Germanwings was set up in 2013 to take over Lufthansa's point-to-point routes - mainly in Europe - which were largely loss-making at the time. A leaner cost structure, a dedicated fleet of around sixty aircraft (mainly Airbus A319s and A320s) based at seven German airports, the largest of which are Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg,...

Years go by, plans come and go, and their titles change. But ultimately, the challenge facing the Air France-KLM group remains more or less the same: to reduce costs while improving its product. It's a complex, if not insoluble, problem... Like Alexandre de Juniac before him, Jean-Marc Janaillac is embarking on this...

Following in the footsteps of many airlines, Iberia is now launching an intermediate Premium Economy class, called Turista Premium. Luis Gallego, Executive Chairman of Iberia, explains that this launch is part of "the company's Plan Futuro, which aims to increase revenues, while offering passengers a new option with greater flexibility.

Since the launch of the first Paris-Muscat flight in 2009, Oman Air has been steadily building up capacity at Roissy CDG. Increased to five flights just a year ago, in October 2015, then to six last March, service to the capital of the Sultanate of Oman will be daily from 30 October...

As Réunion's 'official' air carrier, Air Austral faces intense competition on its routes to mainland France - its main market - from three other carriers (Air France, Corsair, XL Airways), to which a fifth competitor, French Blue, will be added in June. However, this competition does not seem to frighten Air Austral. "We...

On 28 September, the Supervisory Board of the Lufthansa group finally made official its decision to acquire the remaining 55% of SN Airholding. This takeover of the parent company of Brussels Airlines will lead to the full acquisition of the Belgian carrier over the next few months. "Completing the full acquisition of SN Airholding by Deutsche...

How long has La Compagnie been attending IFTM Top Resa? Jean-Charles Perino - It's been three years now. We were there in 2014, just a few weeks after our first flight, to introduce the product. We were also there in 2015 to 'kick things off', and this time to present the launch of our second...

Turkey's national airline is adjusting its winter schedule in response to the drop in visitor numbers to the country following several attacks in recent months. The reduction programme affects the whole of Europe, including destinations in the French-speaking world. Some of these reductions in frequency are due...

Air France-KLM is living in a very different environment today than it did in the past. What strategy do you intend to put in place to survive in this context? Jean-Marc Janaillac - Let me start by saying how proud I am to be joining the Air France-KLM Group at a key stage in its history, at a time when the decisions that will be taken should enable it to regain its place...

Why are you entering the scheduled flight segment? Bruno Lechevin - We took this decision a year ago, and it's a logical extension of our charter business, which we've been developing since 2012. We offer incentive and VIP flights. With the delivery of a new Embraer aircraft, we believe that we will be able to...

While Madrid remains Spain's most important hub, with all the intercontinental routes operated by the national carrier Iberia, Barcelona has gradually closed the gap with the Castilian airport. Barcelona is now flirting with 40 million passengers a year, while Madrid recorded almost 47 million passengers in 2015. This represents a...