PARIS, 2016-Dec-05 — /Travel PR News/ — To mark the 20th anniversary of the Navette service, Jean-Marc Janaillac, Chairman of the Air France-KLM Group and Chairman of Air France, accompanied by Patrick Alexandre, EVP Commercial, Sales and Alliances Air France-KLM, and Zoran Jelkic, SVP French Market Air France, were welcomed in Bordeaux by Pascal Personne, Chairman of the Management Board and Director of Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport.
THE NAVETTE CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY – THE PLANE THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT PLANES
For the past 20 years, the Navette has been an integral part of the French air transport landscape. Launched back in 1996 on departure from Paris-Orly to Marseille, Nice and Toulouse, the Navette has strengthened the Air France-KLM Group’s position on its domestic market, the largest in Europe. With 25 flights to Toulouse, 18 flights to Nice, 14 flights to Marseille, the Navette has long been a unique product in Europe, and is the spearhead for HOP! Air France’s short-haul activity.
In 1999, Bordeaux airport began operating the Navette service, offering its customers 14 daily flights to and from Paris-Orly in addition to the 6 daily flights to and from Paris-Charles de Gaulle.
Thanks to the work carried out in cooperation with Bordeaux-Mérignac airport and all the relevant airports, the Navette aircraft are systematically parked at the same boarding gates and in the same hall. With priority access to the security checkpoints, a SkyPriority customer will take less than 20 minutes between arriving at the airport and reaching the boarding gate, like at the other Navette airports. Special attention has been paid to the business lounges at the airports served by the Navette for HOP! Air France customers, offering them optimum comfort with valued services such as snacks, access to the full press offer and a WiFi connection.
With a new logo, the new Navette service is thus refocusing on its basic principles of greater choice, a simplified offer, easier access and flexibility. Since 30 October 2016, a fifth airport has been served by the Navette service – Montpellier with 10 daily frequencies.
To mark 20 years of Navette service, HOP! Air France will organize a series of events for its customers throughout 2016 and 2017 at the Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and Montpellier airports.
Jean-Marc Janaillac stated: “Celebrating 20 successful years of Navette service is a source of immense pride for the Air France-KLM Group. The Navette is more than ever the flagship product of our French domestic network. Recent efforts to revitalize the Navette service should allow us to retain our current customers and attract new customers despite a hyper-competitive market. I am convinced that the quality of service, regularity, operational excellence, use of digital tools, competitive fares and a caring attitude with the customer will make the difference. Trust Together must allow us to grow by winning back business and resuming the offensive, Hop! Air France will be fully committed to this dynamic”.
Pascal Personne said: “Recent studies jointly conducted with HOP! Air France show that potential for air transport will remain significant, even after increasing competition from rail transport in July, which allow us to foresee the future Orly service with confidence”.
SEAT CAPACITY UP BY 9% DURING WINTER 2016-17
In winter 2016-17, HOP ! Air France seat capacity is up by 9%.
- 14 daily flights for Paris-Orly by Airbus 320 and 6 flights for Paris-Charles de Gaulle
- 6 daily flights for Lyon by Airbus 319 or CRJ 1000
- 3 daily flights for Lille by Embraer 170
- 3 daily flights for Marseille by Airbus 319
- 2 daily flights for Strasbourg by Embraer 145
- 1 daily flight for Nice by CRJ 1000
- 3 weekly flights for Rome by Embraer 170 (Monday, Friday and Sunday)
From January to October 2016, HOP! Air France registered very satisfactory results with a load factor of 73.3% on all its 8 scheduled services (Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle included) and 2 seasonal routes to Corsica. Traffic grew by +1.4% for an increase in capacity of +3.9% compared with 2015.
BORDEAUX CONNECTED TO ALL THE AIR FRANCE-KLM GROUP’S HUBS
Wit its 30 destinations, the Lyon hub offers multiple connecting opportunities. 15% of Bordeaux customers have connections beyond Lyon, mainly to Nice, Venice, Metz-Nancy-Lorraine and Strasbourg.
Bordeaux is connected to all the Air France-KLM Group’s connecting hubs – with 3 daily flights to Amsterdam and 6 daily flights to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Bordeaux is thus connected to destinations worldwide. To Paris-Orly, close to one out of 6 customers has a connection mainly to the French Caribbean, Cayenne, Réunion and also New York thanks to the daily flight operated since 6 June.
HOP! AIR FRANCE – A FEW FIGURES
- 600 daily flights to 50 airports served
- Approximately one hundred aircraft with between 48 and 212 seats
- Fares starting at 49 €* including tax one-way
- 13 million passengers carried each year
- Over 130 routes in summer 2016
- 5 Navette flights on departure from Paris-Orly: Bordeaux, Marseille, Montpellier, Nice and Toulouse
- 2 main hubs in France: Lyon (30 routes) and Paris-Orly (26 routes)
- More than 8,500 employees at the service of our customers, both on the ground and on board
Customers can make a booking by visiting the websites www.hop.com or www.airfrance.fr, call the HOP! call centre on 0892 70 22 22** or the Air France call centre on 3654***, or contact an Air France ticket office or their local travel agent.
SOURCE: AIR FRANCE
* Fare subject to conditions and availability. Non-refundable ticket. Log on to www.hop.com website for more info.
** Service 0.35 € / min + call flat rate. Opening times: 7 days a week, 365 d/yr from 6:30am to 9pm, Monday to Friday, from 09:30am to 6pm on Saturday and from 09:30am to 8pm on Sunday
*** Service 0.35 € / min + call flat rate. 7 days a week, 365 d/yr, from 06:30am to 10pm.