Description:

In an attempt to claw back some of their home market from easyJet, Air France is planning a budget airline to operate interior flights from Nice, Marseille and Toulouse from next year.

An unidentified source from the company has revealed another attempt by Air France to create a low-cost airline for internal flights.  In March this year a similar project for a low-cost alternative using Air France KLM subsidiary airline – Transavia – flying out of Nice, had to be ditched after strong opposition by the syndicates.

Keen to retrieve customers now using easyJet for inter-French flights, Air France are planning to use the same business model as easyJet by basing pilots and cabin crew in and around Nice, Marseille and Toulouse.  This means that aircraft will start and end the day in the cities where the crew live, thus eliminating costs of crew staying away overnight and resulting in less dependence on Roissy-Charles de Gaulle as a connecting airport, faster turn arounds and more productive days’ flying.

This low cost subsidiary is to be called Air France Express.

The news, as reported by AFP in the Figaro newspaper, has not been confirmed by Air France KLM.