Bruno Matheu - Originally, our aim was to upgrade economy class passengers who wanted more comfort but couldn't afford the price of business class. These customers are leisure passengers but also, in our mind, business passengers, particularly from SMEs.<\/p>\n
B. M. - Because for these companies, it means that it is no longer necessary to have a contract with Air France to benefit from very good prices. The Premium Voyageur offer is positioned from the outset with the lowest public prices. Fares are much closer to economy class than to business class. For example, they start at \u20ac1,038 for a return trip to New York.<\/p>\n
B. M. - Comfort rather than service. Of course, there is priority check-in, boarding and baggage delivery, but overall, the on-board service is comparable to that of economy class. Comfort, on the other hand, is far superior: eight seats abreast instead of ten on the B777s, with shell seats guaranteeing real privacy. This is a different positioning from that found on the Caribbean and Indian Ocean with the Aliz\u00e9 class, which offers more services, but with less comfort than Premium Voyageur.<\/p>\n
B. M. - Given the fall in business traffic, we considered the possibility of installing Premium Voyageur by taking space from the business cabin. But this would have delayed the introduction of this new class. However, we believe that it can be a real weapon against the crisis. So we opted for the quickest implementation by taking space in the economy class.<\/p>\n
B. M. - Eventually, the question will arise of restoring the balance between classes. It's conceivable that a certain number of Business customers will switch to Premium Voyageur to save money. This is a risk, but it is also one of the objectives of this new product: to ensure that customers who leave business class do not slide towards the back of the aircraft.<\/p>\n
B. M. - There are two aspects. The first concerns companies under contract, with whom we are trying to be as responsive as possible, by offering a wider range of rates. The second is to regain our share of the SME-SMI segment. This involves lower public prices, as well as new programmes: packages, loyalty schemes, etc.<\/p>\n
B. M. - Let's rather say that we have extended our offer with a deliberate desire to offer more accessible public prices. If I take the example of a trip from Paris to Beijing, if you look seven days before the trip, you can now find a business class ticket for around 3,500 euros where, a few months ago, there was nothing for less than 6,000 euros.<\/p>\n
Bruno Matheu is 46 years old and a graduate of \u00c9cole Centrale.<\/p>\n
1986-1992 UTA.<\/p>\n
1992 Air France.<\/p>\n
1995 Programme Director.<\/p>\n
1997 Head of Network Optimisation.<\/p>\n
1998 Deputy Managing Director of the network.<\/p>\n
2002 Executive Vice President, Marketing and Network.<\/p>\n
2004 Member of the Air France-KLM Strategic Management Committee.<\/p>\n
2007 Executive Vice President Air France-KLM in charge of marketing, revenue management and programmes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Who is your new Premium Voyageur class aimed at? Bruno Matheu - Initially, our aim was to upgrade economy class passengers who wanted more comfort but couldn't afford the price of business class. These customers are leisure passengers but also, in our mind, [...]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1017],"type-darticle":[51],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-13035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classe","tag-decideur","type-darticle-interview","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n