{"id":77257,"date":"2018-08-20T10:30:17","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T08:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=77257"},"modified":"2022-01-14T14:28:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T13:28:49","slug":"canadian-revolution-air-france-klm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/canadian-revolution-air-france-klm","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Smith: Canadian revolution for Air France-KLM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having just been appointed by the Board of Directors of<strong>Air France<\/strong>and with the open support of the French government - Air France's main shareholder - the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/ben-smith-air-france-klm-20180816.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new Chief Executive Officer of Air France<\/a>, <strong>Benjamin Smith<\/strong>is already causing controversy. He will officially take office on <strong>September 30th<\/strong> However, the arrival of Benjamin Smith is causing a stir among trade unions, who are denouncing the appointment of a foreign executive. Without getting into the controversy surrounding the nationality of the new CEO, what does Benjamin Smith's arrival mean for the company? <strong>Air France KLM Group strategy<\/strong> ? And what can passengers expect?<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin Smith is a recognised professional, having worked miracles during his time at the helm of<strong>Air Canada<\/strong>. The Canadian airline is profitable, and its in-flight passenger services are of the highest quality, making it the benchmark for service quality throughout North America. The creation of a <strong>long-haul low-cost subsidiary<\/strong> has given Air Canada a <strong>international dimension<\/strong> that it no longer had. In France, for example, it's <strong>Air Canada Rouge<\/strong> which offers regular\u00a0<strong>Montr\u00e9al<\/strong> to\u00a0<strong>Marseille<\/strong> and <strong>Nice<\/strong>including a <strong>Premium Economy<\/strong> for business travellers.<\/p>\n<p>In France, his appointment has already calmed the shareholders and the KLM part of the group. A non-Frenchman, who does not come from the classic ENA-HEC-Senior State Civil Servant background, is rather a reassuring signal. It also helps to rebalance the <strong>strained relationship<\/strong> between Air France and KLM. The Canadian will bring a <strong>necessary neutrality<\/strong>. Benjamin Smith's nationality should also satisfy Delta Air Lines, one of Air France's shareholders. Even if it is not \"made in the USA\", a North American culture is judged positively, particularly when it comes to major strategic decisions concerning the <strong>transatlantic joint venture<\/strong> between Air France-KLM and Delta.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>revitalising Air France<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to a press release from the Air France-KLM group, \"\u00a0<em>Benjamin Smith's top priority will be to revitalise Air France, give the <strong>deep strategic impetus<\/strong> to the Group, and to work with the teams on a new managerial approach.<\/em>\" stresses the group.<\/p>\n<p>Air France will undoubtedly be showing more dynamism in its fight against fiercer competition. We can expect <strong>new pricing strategies<\/strong>Ben Smith is no doubt inspired by his success at Air Canada. This probably augurs well for the <strong>creation of a genuine low-cost hub<\/strong> as its European competitors IAG have done with <strong>Vueling-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/low-cost-long-courrier-level-20170601.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Level<\/a><\/strong> and Lufthansa with <strong>Eurowings<\/strong>. One of the main thrusts of the overhaul will certainly be the <strong>redefining the role of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/joon-air-france-start-up-20170925.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JOON<\/a><\/strong> - hybrid and poorly positioned product - and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/nathalie-stubler-transavia-france-20180418.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Transavia<\/a><\/strong>This is a short-haul low-cost airline, but its European presence remains relatively weak compared with the competition. Eventually, a low-cost subsidiary along the lines of \"Air Canada Rouge\" is likely.<\/p>\n<p>Le <strong>Charles de Gaulle hub<\/strong> is also set to become more efficient with a complete overhaul of the connections offered. The hub is considered one of the best in the world for the number of connections it offers. But it could become even more powerful with the launch of new air routes. The absence of certain routes in <strong>Asia<\/strong> (Indonesia, the Philippines, secondary cities in Japan, among others), Central America and secondary European destinations could be made up for by better synergies between the traditional airline division (Air France and KLM) and a future low-cost division.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in terms of the service itself, Air France today ranks among the very good airlines. What is perhaps missing is a more developed \u00e0 la carte offer. For example, only Premium Economy passengers can buy a <strong>access to the exhibition<\/strong> at the time of departure. Why not extend it to everyone, or create new lounges for passengers paying for this service? More cabin options - apart from meals - could also be offered...<\/p>\n<p>Be that as it may, the arrival of Benjamin Smith should bring a more international vision to Air France, with better consideration of the competitive challenges facing the airline. All that remains now is to convince the unions...<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benjamin Smith, who has enjoyed great success at Air Canada, faces a major challenge at Air France KLM. The group's new boss will probably mark a turning point in the history of Air France KLM, even if his nationality is causing controversy among the unions. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":77267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[129,131,2171],"type-darticle":[],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-77257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerien","tag-air-france","tag-compagnies-aeriennes","tag-klm","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Benjamin Smith, la r\u00e9volution canadienne d&#039;Air France-KLM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Les syndicats d\u2019Air France se mobilisent contre l\u2019arriv\u00e9e d\u2019un nouveau Directeur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral, transfuge d\u2019Air Canada. Pourtant, Benjamin Smith a r\u00e9ussi \u00e0 faire d\u2019Air Canada la meilleure compagnie en Am\u00e9rique du Nord. R\u00e9ussira-t-il de fa\u00e7on aussi spectaculaire chez Air France ? Et que peut attendre le passager affaires\u00a0? Benjamin Smith marquera probablement un tournant dans l\u2019histoire de la compagnie fran\u00e7aise.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/canadian-revolution-air-france-klm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benjamin Smith : r\u00e9volution canadienne pour Air France-KLM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Les syndicats d\u2019Air France se mobilisent contre l\u2019arriv\u00e9e d\u2019un nouveau Directeur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral, transfuge d\u2019Air Canada. Pourtant, Benjamin Smith a r\u00e9ussi \u00e0 faire d\u2019Air Canada la meilleure compagnie en Am\u00e9rique du Nord. R\u00e9ussira-t-il de fa\u00e7on aussi spectaculaire chez Air France ? Et que peut attendre le passager affaires\u00a0? Benjamin Smith marquera probablement un tournant dans l\u2019histoire de la compagnie fran\u00e7aise.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/canadian-revolution-air-france-klm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voyages d&#039;affaires\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-20T08:30:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-14T13:28:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"694\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"374\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Luc Citrinot\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Luc Citrinot\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm\",\"name\":\"Benjamin Smith, la r\u00e9volution canadienne d'Air France-KLM\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-20T08:30:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-14T13:28:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c74b2eea412d55da7482e81e95f8edc3\"},\"description\":\"Les syndicats d\u2019Air France se mobilisent contre l\u2019arriv\u00e9e d\u2019un nouveau Directeur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral, transfuge d\u2019Air Canada. Pourtant, Benjamin Smith a r\u00e9ussi \u00e0 faire d\u2019Air Canada la meilleure compagnie en Am\u00e9rique du Nord. R\u00e9ussira-t-il de fa\u00e7on aussi spectaculaire chez Air France ? Et que peut attendre le passager affaires\u00a0? Benjamin Smith marquera probablement un tournant dans l\u2019histoire de la compagnie fran\u00e7aise.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg\",\"width\":694,\"height\":374,\"caption\":\"La nomination du Canadien Benjamin Smith pourrait marquer un tournant strat\u00e9gique chez Air France KLM, mais fait grincer des dents en interne, chez les syndicats\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Benjamin Smith : r\u00e9volution canadienne pour Air France-KLM\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/\",\"name\":\"Voyages d&#039;affaires\",\"description\":\"media fran\u00e7ais du Voyage d&#039;Affaires &amp; du MICE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c74b2eea412d55da7482e81e95f8edc3\",\"name\":\"Luc Citrinot\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/author\/luccitrinot\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Benjamin Smith, Air France-KLM's Canadian revolution","description":"The Air France unions are mobilising against the arrival of a new Chief Executive Officer, a transfer from Air Canada. Yet Benjamin Smith has succeeded in making Air Canada the best airline in North America. Will he achieve the same spectacular success at Air France? And what can business travellers expect? Benjamin Smith will probably mark a turning point in the history of the French airline.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/canadian-revolution-air-france-klm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Benjamin Smith : r\u00e9volution canadienne pour Air France-KLM","og_description":"Les syndicats d\u2019Air France se mobilisent contre l\u2019arriv\u00e9e d\u2019un nouveau Directeur G\u00e9n\u00e9ral, transfuge d\u2019Air Canada. Pourtant, Benjamin Smith a r\u00e9ussi \u00e0 faire d\u2019Air Canada la meilleure compagnie en Am\u00e9rique du Nord. R\u00e9ussira-t-il de fa\u00e7on aussi spectaculaire chez Air France ? Et que peut attendre le passager affaires\u00a0? Benjamin Smith marquera probablement un tournant dans l\u2019histoire de la compagnie fran\u00e7aise.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/canadian-revolution-air-france-klm","og_site_name":"Voyages d&#039;affaires","article_published_time":"2018-08-20T08:30:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-14T13:28:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":694,"height":374,"url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Luc Citrinot","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Luc Citrinot","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm","name":"Benjamin Smith, Air France-KLM's Canadian revolution","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg","datePublished":"2018-08-20T08:30:17+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-14T13:28:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c74b2eea412d55da7482e81e95f8edc3"},"description":"The Air France unions are mobilising against the arrival of a new Chief Executive Officer, a transfer from Air Canada. Yet Benjamin Smith has succeeded in making Air Canada the best airline in North America. Will he achieve the same spectacular success at Air France? And what can business travellers expect? Benjamin Smith will probably mark a turning point in the history of the French airline.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-smith-air-france-klm.jpg","width":694,"height":374,"caption":"La nomination du Canadien Benjamin Smith pourrait marquer un tournant strat\u00e9gique chez Air France KLM, mais fait grincer des dents en interne, chez les syndicats"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/revolution-canadienne-air-france-klm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Benjamin Smith : r\u00e9volution canadienne pour Air France-KLM"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/","name":"Business travel","description":"THE FRENCH BUSINESS TRAVEL &amp; MICE MEDIA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c74b2eea412d55da7482e81e95f8edc3","name":"Luc Citrinot","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/author\/luccitrinot"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77257"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77269,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77257\/revisions\/77269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77257"},{"taxonomy":"type-darticle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-darticle?post=77257"},{"taxonomy":"n_magazine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/n_magazine?post=77257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}