Benjamin Smith, canadian, new general manager of Air France-KLM, discover day after day the arcane of the group, franco-Dutch, and more especially those of Air France, where he is also the interim executive director until the end of the year to address the most urgent problems. On the social level, he must continue the discussions with the pilots ‘ unions, which want even greater increases than the 4 % granted to the other employees. The national Union of airline pilots (SNPL), a majority has not signed the agreement reached last week with most of the other representative professional organisations.
It is essential to Air France. The modernisation and reform of the company are also making arrangements with drivers that do not fail to associate financial counterparties. It is a peculiarity of Air France, where a class of the staff decides the strategy of the company and may cripple its evolution. Let’s imagine for a moment that, at Renault, production engineers decide which car models to launch…
Too many brands and no low-cost long-haul
The group displays too many marks, notes Ben Smith. The passenger was confronted by Air France, KLM, HOP !, KLM Cityhopper, Transavia, Joon. Same products Air France-KLM may be proposed, such as the frequent flyer program Flying Blue. HOP !, poorly structured and that loses a lot of money, and Joon, which aims to reduced costs (for the company), without being low-cost (to the passenger), are the most threatened, blurring the image of Air France. Behind this policy of brands is a key point in the strategy of the airlines with the creation of a true low-cost long-haul.
that is to say, on the social plane, from a blank sheet, based on the eu law and not national, as did the group IAG (British Airways and Iberia) with Level. It operates, among others, from Paris to the United States or the west Indies. Under the French flag, this alignment Hititbet to the market conditions is possible, as shown by French Bee, the low-cost group Dubreuil canl? casino oyunlar? and cousin of Air Caribbean. In the latter case, the SNPL has given its agreement. The will he to Air France ? Ben Smith brings her experience as Air Canada, where he has founded the subsidiary Air Canada Rouge.
types of aircraft too many
Another surprise of the leader came from across the Atlantic, the composition of the fleet of the group does not display less than twenty types of aircraft. Nearly as much as in the catalogues of Airbus and Boeing combined. We could add the different configurations of cabins for the same type of aircraft, which further complicates the management. Therefore, sub-groups meet on a very small number of copies. Smith caricature state of the nation, declaring, according to one of his relatives, that there must be zero or one hundred aircraft by type of aircraft. And the boss is watching with curiosity the fleet of ten Airbus A380 of Air France. The super jumbo, expensive to operate with fuel on the rise, would seem to have his future behind him.
Had in common with KLM
The rationalization of the number of aircraft that might be passing through a sharing of certain aircraft between Air France and KLM. A crew of Air France could fly from Paris to New York with a B787 of Air France and the flight back on the same plane of KLM, which would optimize the employment of seafarers and the use of equipment. There also, through agreements with professional organisations. This optimization could also be applied to medium-haul, which it is necessary to rejuvenate the fleet. It is indeed necessary to progressively replace the fleet of single-aisle Air France (A320 family), KLM (B737), Transavia Holland and Transavia France (B737) and HOP ! (CRJ and E-Jets) by 2025. A minimum of 150 devices is concerned.
on The ground, the staff of management would be considered huge and could be divided by two. In fact, very often the same function is duplicated at Air France and KLM, or Air France-KLM. As in the time of Airbus and EADS in the aerospace industry. Ben Smith has already embodied this focus by appointing Alexandre Boissy deputy general secretary of Air France-KLM, deputy secretary general of Air France and director of communications of Air France-KLM.
