airfrance sets its passengers apart from the crowd

8/18/2019 Airfrance Sets Its Passengers Apart From the Crowd

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strategic approach Air France sets its passengers apart from the crowdContents

The new Air France travel concept, a strategic project dedicated to passengers / page 4

Air France upgrades its range of products and services / page 6

A new series of travel services shaped by passengers’ changing expectations and needs / page 9

Photos: Philippe Costes, Air France cabin environment

Frédéric de Gasquet, Terminal 2E Paris-CDG

Luc Boegly, Air France lounges

Air France - Press Office - www.airfrance.com/corporate - Tel.: +33 (0)1 41 56 56 00


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It will have taken more than 300 million euros in investments over two years and five years of work

to bring this project to fruition, and it involved 14 different sectors in Air France, close on 50 suppliers,

300,000 working hours to refit 69 aircraft, the delivery of 15 new fully-equipped aircraft, 290 third-

generation self-service kiosks, 50% more personal space in l’Espace Première and 27% in l’Espace

Affaires…

A quick glance at these figures gives you an idea of the impressive amount of work accomplished

by Air France to continue to anticipate and satisfy the needs of its customers, despite the particularly

difficult economic context of the air transport sector.

The result is a luxury First Class, l’Espace Première, available on flights to a carefully selected

range of destinations, and an even further enhanced Business Class, l’Espace Affaires, offering

passengers a lie-flat seat-bed reclining to 180°. The introduction of this new, completely reworked

chain of products and services from November 2003 to Summer 2005 constitutes the new Air

France travel concept.


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A new product in keeping with Air France’s

ongoing policy to satisfy its customers as

closely as possible.

Air France has always striven to provide the best an

airline can offer to satisfy its 42 million passengers

each year. Thanks to its modern fleet and to one of

the largest networks, primarily due to the SkyTeam

alliance, Air France has undeniably succeeded in

becoming one of the leading airlines worldwide,

achieving the status of an airline major. It now ranks

first in Europe in terms of traffic, and second worldwide

for international passenger transport (IATA 2002 data).

Winning over new customers and retaining the

loyalty of those who have already opted for Air France

is a daily challenge for the 71,000 members of the air-

line’s staff. It is also a strategic long-term goal for

the airline. It is only by offering seamless, quality servi-ces that airlines are able to stand out from each other

in today’s increasingly competitive context and retain

the loyalty of their customers. Hence Air France’s de-

cision to invest even more for the benefit of its

customers, in keeping with its strategy of continually

anticipating and innovating.

Even though its current products, 10 years old in 2005

but extensively upgraded in 2000/2001, remain of a

very high standard, Air France wanted to an

trends and continue to strive for the benef

customers. Consequently, in 2000, Air France to embark on the in-depth renewal of its pro

offer passengers a range of new travel spa

associated services, both on the ground

board, tailored to their changing requireme

expectations.

Today, Air France is revealing the fruit of ove

years of work, which will continue for anot

years until full implementation of the new p

The aim is to give passengers a travel experie

distinctively French style, which is Air France

ficity. The new Air France product, which has

been partially implemented on the ground, na

Terminal 2E of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport

fully available to passengers by Summer 20first aircraft to be fitted will take off in No

2003.

Thinking and investing to meet one

ambitions

The context surrounding the birth of this

significantly illustrates the major role which c

1/ The new Air France travel concept - a strategic project dedicated to passengers

l'Espace Première: close-up of storage space - bed - shell


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l'Espace Affaires: close-up of storage space - "lie-flat" seat-bed - screens

2/ A new range of premium products and services

Market surveys prove that a luxury First Class cabin

– l’Espace Première – is fully justified in Air France’s

marketing strategy. At a time when many airlinesworldwide have decided to drop First Class on their

flights, Air France is opting not just to keep the

First Class cabin, but also to enhance the available

services and render them even more luxurious

than in the past on a very carefully selected num-

ber of routes operated with the Boeing 777. Over-

all, l’Espace Première will be available on flights to

about 40% of its long-haul destinations. The other

destinations will benefit from a single premium

class – l’Espace Affaires – which is a further en-

hanced Business Class offering passengers 27%

more personal space, allowing them a "lie-flat"

seat-bed.

This new cabin configuration (l’Espace Premi

ère,

l’Espace Affaires, Tempo) in the long-haul fleet will

enable Air France to offer its passengers substan-

tially improved travel comfort without detracting

from its profitability.

The brand names will remain the same: l’Espace

Première, l’Espace Affaires, but there are consider-

able transformations behind this apparent stability.

Each cabin has been totally reworked and rede-

signed in terms of fittings and services prov

passengers, so as to adapt them more clo

their expectations.

Above all, the new l’Espace Premièr

(First Class) cabin will be offering th

luxury of more space

Instead of the former 12-seat layout, the new

will have eight seats organized in a chevron

guration turned in towards each other, there

viding 50% additional space. L'Espace P

passengers will benefit from a truly private

area where they enjoy exceptional functio

including a perfectly flat bed. The cabin will

ble a lounge when the seats are in the uprigh

tion, but once the seats are converted into will have all the comfort of a hotel room.

Compared with the competition, the new Air

l’Espace Première cabin will be at the top

range in the air transport industry, with the

very considerable advantage of a highly q

cabin crew trained for Concorde, who will

the passenger to relax in total tranquillity th

attentive, discreet and efficient service, sim


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Also in terms of catering, Air France has chosen the

best with Guy Martin, Chef at the famous Parisian

restaurant Le Grand Véfour. He was elected "Top

French Chef" by the World Master of Culinary Arts in

2001. Guy Martin has designed the menus and is

also style consultant for l'Espace Première.

Then l’Espace Affaires "moves up" to First

Air France also has big ideas about its Business

Class, l’Espace Affaires. On the strength of its high-

quality service and current upscale business pro-

duct, Air France will further enhance its business

product, guaranteeing its passengers 27% more

personal space.

The new Air France l’Espace Affaires, designed for

customers seeking efficiency and modernity as wellas pleasure and tranquillity, now offers what is tech-

nologically referred to as a "lie-flat" seat-bed. Its

rigid shell guarantees a volume of personal space

enabling the passenger to lie completely flat for opti-

mum comfort.

With cabin comfort easily among the best provided

by the industry, Air France’s new long-haul business

product will confirm the airline’s ability to offer an

outstanding product that is both attractive and com-

petitive. With the seat-bed concept, Air France will

be setting its very high standards for business travel.

Very few competitors offer as sophisticated a pro-duct, whether in "Business-First" or even in the stan-

dard First Class.

Tempo also comes up in the world

The long-haul Tempo service is also part of the glo-

bal renewal of the Air France service offer: the cabin

environment has totally changed, and the SK3 seat,

introduced with the first A330-200, will now be

systematically installed throughout the company’s

long-haul fleet.

Sporting the new colour scheme, upholstered in an

ottoman blue fabric with white dots, this seat boasts

a number of functions, a new design and an ergono-mic structure for optimum passenger comfort: an

adjustable seat-base, a new headrest, and a reclining

footrest which adjusts to the desired position.

A curved table, an eye-glass holder and a cup hol-

der, which all fit neatly into the seatback to allow for

optimum organization of space.

The materials used in the seat design ensure com-

fortable seating, with an even spread of body pres-

sure.

Digital video is systematically available in the Tempo

cabin, offering the flexibility of films starting every 15

minutes on an individual 6.4-inch screen, which isboth interactive and adjustable.


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Boeing 777: l'Espace Première / l'Espace Affaires

Close-up: Racing against the clock to introduce the new

Air France travel concept

It takes 18 months to refit the cabins of the entire fleet.

The first plane to undergo this process is an Airbus A340,

which will roll out in November 2003, and the last will leave

the hangars in June 2005. By this date, all the aircraft in the

Air France fleet will be upgraded to offer the new Air France

travel concept (with the exception of four Boeing 747-300s, due

to be retired only 2 years later). The new Première cabin will

appear in April 2004, when the first Boeing 777-300s are delivered.

These will be followed by the refitted Boeing 777-200s.

In this way, 50% of Air France’s long-haul fleet will offer the

new travel concept by the beginning of Winter 2004/05, and

90% by the start of the 2005 Summer season.

The opening of Terminal 2E at Paris-Charles de Gaulle in June

2003 marked an important step in the deployment of the new

Air France ground product. This will be gradually phased in at

all Air France international stations.

Between now and Spring 2005, the new Air France product will

be fully deployed, including totally revamped inflight services.

Close-up: 300,000 working hours for a fully-converte

33 three-cabin aircraft – l’Espace Première, l’Espace

Tempo

The 23 Boeing 777-200s already operated by Air Fran

10 new Boeing 777-300s to be delivered as from Apri

will be equiped with a three-cabin configuration.

51 dual-cabin aircraft – l’Espace Affaires, Tempo

The other aircraft in the Air France fleet, namely the A

A330s, the Airbus A340s and the Boeing 747-400s, w

fitted for a dual-cabin configuration to satisfy a more

demand for Business and leisure travel classes.

The Air France Industrial Logistics Division at the hea

the operation

Overall, all the industrial refitting operations will gene

close to 300,000 working hours over 18 months, acco

to an extremely precise work schedule to be carried

the Air France Industrial Logistics Division. The plane

be grounded for three weeks in the case of the Airbu

A330-A340s and 3 to 4 weeks for the Boeing 777s (i.e

3,000 to 6,000 production hours per aircraft).


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Terminal 2E - Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport l'Espace Première lounge

Using leading-edge technology to save

time…

On the ground, Air France is making use of the

very latest airport technologies. The objective is

to make travel faster and more fluid from start

to finish, by ensuring optimum efficiency for it

passengers.

In the airport, the new technologies will above all

be used to expand the self-service potential,

which ranges from new boarding passes with bar

codes to third-generation self-service kiosks and

pre-check-in by phone. The self-service kiosks

enable locally-based passengers to check in in less

than 30 seconds. Tested since May 2003 at Orly

West, 16 have now been installed in Terminal 2E at

Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Beginning in September

2003, these kiosks will gradually be installedthroughout France and Europe at all Air France

destinations. The long-range target is to have 290

third-generation self-service kiosks in operation in

50 destinations by the end of 2004.

Air France has also revamped its remote display

screens to optimize the information available to

passengers, in a desire to achieve maximum

transparency, save time and ensure peace of mind.

New, wide 16:9 TFT screens will ultimately equip

all Air France stations and display updated p

and operational information throughout the t

check-in, boarding, arrivals jetway, conne

Already, Terminal 2E at Paris-Charles de G

equipped with 400 of these screens.

Lastly, in addition to free Internet access

service (provided by Orange) will be availabl

new lounges for l’Espace Première and l'

Affaires passengers, for wireless Internet conn

Air France’s philosophy in adopting the new o

technologies in l’Espace Première and l’

Affaires was to adapt to real passenger needs

video on demand, PC sockets, 10.4-inch int

video screens, telephone. All represent rea

value in the eyes of the customer and all corr

to real needs and uses. Each is intended to e

comfort or facilitate work with no constraint imon the traveller. Technology is present in t

aircraft but it remains discreet and even, in the

l'Espace Première, completely hidden.


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Air France - Corporate Communications Division - Press Office - 45, rue de Paris - F-95747 Roissy-CDG Internet: www.airfrance.com/corporate - Tel.: +33 (0)1 41 56 56 00 - Fax: +33 (0)1 41 56

airfrance sets its passengers apart from the crowd

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