Had it not been for the rebellion of local Breton elected officials, the Paris-Orly-Brest air service would have been forgotten. Faced with such protests, Transavia did grant a six-month reprieve for the line in early September, although its eventual closure seems inevitable. It must be acknowledged that the transfer of this Air France communication has failed. The company really took the game of giving away low price a whole series of “radial” lines departing from Orly, none to date having met with the expected success.
Already the low profitability of connections from Orly to Brest, Pau or Perpignan or the strong seasonality of lines to Biarritz or Toulon prompted this move in 2020. But their customers both “business” and “leisure” were new Transavia, whose offer is very “solar”. This may explain his reluctance to repeat these lines. Indeed, the difficulties encountered were not the least. First, these lines mobilize aircraft that they can assign to more efficient and profitable routes. Transavia’s fleet consists essentially of Boeing 737s, a high-capacity aircraft with around 150 seats and little space for cabin baggage. Air France, on the other hand, can combine planes with 100 to 212 seats depending on the time of day and demand.
Tariff adjustment
Also, Transavia doesn’t have a proper “product” for frequent flyers. Its tickets can only be changed by fare adjustment. And they are irreversible. Is your appointment cancelled? The ticket is lost regardless of the fare paid. As for changing the reservation two hours before the flight, it is simply impossible.
Adding to these pitfalls is the fact that Transavia and Air France are two very different entities, even though they belong to the same group. And it affects 40% of passengers, because it is difficult to combine a one-way ticket with Air France from Charles de Gaulle and a return to Orly with Transavia, for example, if the schedule is more convenient for you. And it’s a shame. for example to Montpellier, by combining around four Charles de Gaulle flights operated by Air France and four to Orly by Transavia, we get a TGV-like offer. So highly competitive.
Problem: For IT reasons, merging the two companies is not possible. Why doesn’t Air France do the same? low price what does that do with Air Europa, KLM or Delta? That is, reserving seats and selling them as “Air France operated…” tickets, which would allow you to have an Air France ticket on the outbound and return journey with all the benefits of a national airline. The only thing that would be different would be the in-flight service that passengers are used to, called “share codes”.
The Montpellier precedent
In fact, all the benefits that Air France offers to its Gold and Platinum passengers do not apply to Transavia (lounge, skypriority, seat, luggage). Overall, almost half of the passengers, on paper, are not interested in switching from Air France to Transavia, and this is undoubtedly why we are witnessing an increase in customers to Charles-de-Gaulle when passengers have a choice. For example? 7% of customers found on board Air France who are entitled to take the flight of their choice on the day of their booking lose this privilege with Transavia. In another scenario, Transavia does not provide connections, affecting 5 to 10% of passengers.
The company, run by Natalie Stabler, seems to be aware of this as it has drastically reduced the offering of every line it undertakes. Between Paris and Brest, Air France offered 33 weekly frequencies before Covid, meaning 7,400 weekly seats. This winter, Transavia will offer four weekly frequencies, meaning 1,512 seats. “Attempts have been made to promote traffic. For example, in September and November 2021. overcapacity was achieved with 9 to 10 flights per week. This program made it possible to make Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 24/7. This program has been maintained on a steady basis during these two months to observe booking trends, a communication campaign from Brest Airport to support the line. The experience was not conclusive. During this period, the employment rate was 35%. clarifies the company’s press spokesperson. The line to Perpignan is slightly better, with around 14 frequencies per week. Finally, how can one not be surprised to see Montpellier appear among the destinations sold to Transavia. With Air France, it was upgraded to Navette, with frequent ten daily connections to Orly and carrying 500,000 passengers a year. Its move once again caused supply to fall to around 200,000 seats a year. This anomaly on some days of not being able to find a flight to Orly after 16:00, when we know that end of day periods are the most popular with frequent travelers. If they don’t take it to Charles de Gaulle now by TGV or… Air France.
Source: Le Figaro
