Two months after having announced the project of creation of a new subsidiary called Joon, Air France has unveiled this Monday, the contours of this new company to lower costs to his family, which is supposed to enable it to open new lines, to re-open some that had to be closed for lack of profitability, and transfer a number still operated by Air France, but in the economic conditions extremely difficult. Main objective : to reduce the cost of power to the hub of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle on the medium-haul, battered by low-cost airlines and regain some ground in the face of the companies of the Gulf on the network long-haul. And, more precisely, of the lines, say, mid-pleasure, half-business, sometimes referred to as in the sector of ” bleisure “.
Flights begin the first day of December, on medium-haul
In the Face of this specification, the first announcement of Joon are in the least surprising. Not so much on the medium-haul where the lines towards Oporto, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Berlin (that the company will be serving from 1 December) correspond to roads very seriously threatened by the low-cost airlines, but especially on the long-haul. Because, in announcing as the first destinations for long-haul flights to Mahé in the Seychelles and Fortaleza in Brazil from the end of march 2018, it is difficult to see the spirit of ” reconquest “, dear to the leadership in the face of the companies of the Gulf. Little strategic even if they have a certain potential, these lines, and in particular Mahé, did not respond to the profile advertised in terms of potential customers. The line is mainly leisure (admittedly high-end) is not very frequented by Young people, with the exception of honeymoons, while Joon is mainly targeted towards the 18-35 years old who were born with the digital.
Three lines of Air France transferred in Joon
Of course, this is only the beginning and Air France will have the opportunity to quickly introduce services that are more ambitious, since, according to Franck Terner, the director general of Air France, three lines of Air France long-haul will be transferred the next summer at Joon. But, by choosing not to announce a destination symbol of the reconquest and recovery of the long-haul (35% of the lines were there are still a few months in the red), Joon has lost a great opportunity to hit strong input in showing its competitors that it is ready to rumble. The specifications mentioned by the management sticks to the destinations such as Bangkok, Ho-Chi-Minh-City or Orlando (recently stopped), for example,
Attractive prices
In addition to the network, Air France has also introduced price and the product at the edge of Joon.
“Joon is a new model of airline between the company and classic company low-cost “where” will be tested the new features “in a” spirit startup “explained Jean-Michel Mathieu, the director general of Joon, saying that she would” attractive rates “.
Medium-haul flights start at 39 euros one way and those to the Seychelles and to Fortaleza from 299 euros and 249 euros one-way. On the medium-haul, the drinks will be free. The meal will be complimentary in business class. On the long haul a meal will be included in the basic tariff for all categories of tickets. On the medium-haul and long-haul hold baggage will be charged
Hostesses and stewards in sneakers
Away from the strategy of expansion of the range established by the former Ceo Alexandre de Juniac, Joon chose the “break” for the uniforms of his staff aboard, in the down jacket without sleeves, and white sneakers designed with recycled materials from plastic bottles. Side seats, the A340 of Air France will be equipped with new seats. Joon presents itself as a laboratory in which the innovations are intended to be deployed on Air France. Joon will, for example, the access to the passengers from their own smartphone, tablet, or computer, to streaming in-flight ” with a series in particular. On the long haul, they will be able to use glasses to virtual reality.
In the coming negotiations with the trade unions on the perimeter
This new company will start operations with six aircraft medium-haul and three or four airbus A340. From 2019, Joon will take delivery of the first A350. In 2020, Joon will have 28 aircraft, 18 of the A320 family and 10 wide-body aircraft consisting of airbus A340 and A350. In total, Joon should help to increase the supply of seats on Air France long-haul business by 10% between 2017 and 2020. To go beyond, management will have to get the green light from the unions of pilots and personnel of the cabin as she is committed to that. Certainly, the agreements concerning Joon are of indeterminate duration and may be denounced at any time by the management. But in practice, the successive directions have preferred the negotiation of agreements with the passages in strength. The extension of the perimeter of Joon in danger of going through lengthy negotiations and therefore by concessions.
130 million euros of savings
With Joon, the management wants to reduce the costs of 18% on long-haul and 15% on medium-haul. The sources of savings are based in large part on the position of the hostesses and stewards (cabin crew, to flight personnel-commercial). Recruited on the market with working conditions and compensation specific, and not to Air France, their cost will be 45% lower than in the mother house. The drivers will be on the other hand those of Air France, which fly indiscriminately from one company to the other. The decrease in costs of 15% on the position of the drivers Joon, will be achieved by efforts that have been pooled over the whole of the pilots of Air France. 1.5% on all drivers. In the end, Joon must generate € 130 million of cost savings to Air France by 2020.
