Air FranceBenedict Gombocz

Air France: Background Flag carrier of France, headquartered in Tremblay-en-France (north of

Paris).

Subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance.

Serves 36 destinations in France (as of 2013), operating global scheduled passenger and cargo services to 168 destinations in 93 countries (includes France’s departments and territories); also carried 59,513,000 passengers in 2011 alone.

Its international hub is at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport; Paris Orly Airport, Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, Marseille Provence Airport, Toulouse Blagnac Airport, and Nice Côte d’Azur Airport serve as smaller hubs.

Its company headquarters, formerly in Montparnasse, Paris, are located on the property of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris itself.

Founded on 7 October 1933 from a merger of Air Orient, Air Union, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA), and Sociérté Générale de Transport Aérien (SGTA).

Was, between 1950-1990, one of the three primary Allied scheduled airlines operating in Germany at West Berlin’s Tempelhof and Tegel airports.

Bought the operations of France’s domestic airline Air Inter and global competitor UTA (Union des Transports Aériens) in 1990.

Served as the principal national flag carrier of France for seven decades before it merged with KLM in 2003.

Carried 43.3 million passengers between April 2001-March 2002; had a total income of €12.53bn.

Ranked as the biggest European airline in 2004, with 25.5% total market share; was the world’s biggest airline with respect to operating proceeds.

Operates a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide-bodied jets on long-haul routes; uses Airbus A320 family aircraft on short-haul routes.

On 20 November 2009, Air France introduced the A380, with service to New York-JFK from Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The majority of Air France’s regional domestic and European scheduled services with a fleet of regional jet aircraft are operated by its regional airline subsidiary HOP!

Air France-KLM merger symbols

Air France: Hubs, focus cities, and subsidiaries Hubs:

◦ Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport

◦ Paris Orly Airport

Focus cities:◦ Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport

◦ Marseille Provence Airport

◦ Nice Côte d’Azur Airport

◦ Toulouse-Blagnac Airport

Subsidiaries:◦ CityJet

◦ HOP!

◦ Transavia.com France

Air France: Livery The current livery of Air France is a “Eurowhite”

scheme that consists of a white fuselage with the blue Air France title and design.

The tail is white with a row of parallel red and blue lines across at an angle, with a small European flag at the top; this livery has been used since the late 1970s.

Air France had a bare-metal underside that expanded up to a blue cheat-line running across the cabin windows before the “Eurowhite” livery; the fuselage was again white over the cheat-line, with both Air France titles and a French flag.

The tail was white with two wide blue lines, which diminished from the tail’s back, meeting at point by the front bottom; with slight variations, this standard livery would emerge on all post-war Air France aircraft until the late 1970s.

To coincide with Air France’s new logo in 2008, a new livery was disclosed.

With the 2008 livery change, the tail was slightly modified, with three blue bars (instead of four) running down; the bars also now bend at the bottom, which mirrors the logo’s design.

Air France: Marketing “The World Can Be Yours” by Telepopmusik is the new

official song played both before and after Air France flights (during boarding and after landing).

Air France has used various admired music groups for its marketing and onboard ambience, ranging from The Chemical Brothers in 1999 to Telepopmusik in 2010.

Air France: Uniforms Air France uniforms indicate specific ranks of the

flight attendants; for example, two silver sleeve stripes indicate a Chief Purser and one silver sleeve stripe indicates a Purser.

Flight attendants have no sleeve stripes.

The female cabin crew uniforms feature the stripes on the breast pouch, in contrast to the sleeve for their male counterparts.

French fashion designer Christian Lacroix designed the current Air France uniform.

Air France: Logo Upon its founding, Air France assumed the seahorse

logo of its forerunner Air Orient, called the hippocampe ailé (sometimes mockingly called la crevette – or shrimp – by its employees), as its symbol.

The hippocampe ailé was featured on the nose section of aircraft next to the Groupe Air France title before the Air-France KLM merger; following the merger, the Air France-KLM logo was substituted at the nose area on both Air France and KLM aircraft (in place of the KLM/Northwest “Worldwide” reliability mark featured on KLM aircraft between 1993-2002), and the hippocampe ailé was moved to engine nacelles.

The acronym AF was also used importantly featured on the airline flag and signage.

Air France formally changed its logo to a red stripe on 7 January 2008.

Air France: Destinations Air France, from 2011, is a full service international

airline.

Air France operates flights to 36 domestic destinations and 168 global destinations in 93 countries (includes Overseas departments and territories of France) across six major continents; this includes Air France Cargo services and destinations served by franchisees Air Corsica, CityJet, and HOP!

The majority of Air France global flights operate flights from Paris-Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport; as part of the Air France-KLM regional offensive that permits the airports to become significant European airports, Air France additionally has a significant presence at Paris-Orly, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, Marseilles Provence, Toulouse Blagnac, Nice Côte d’Azur, and Bordeaux-Merignac airports.

New routes and codeshare agreements are taking shape as Air France becomes more of a strategic partner of Delta Air Lines and Alitalia through the SkyTeam alliance and a large joint enterprise.

Air France: Codeshare agreements

Air France, besides its subsidiaries CityJet and HOP!, and its SkyTeam alliance partnership, offers frequent flyer partnerships with almost two dozen airlines (from June 2013):

◦ Air Berlin

◦ Air Corsica

◦ Air Madagascar

◦ Air Mauritius

◦ Air Seychelles

◦ Air Serbia

◦ Air Tahiti Nui

◦ airBaltic

◦ Aircalin

◦ Alaska Airlines

◦ Austrian Airlines

◦ Azerbaijan Airlines

◦ Bangkok Airways

◦ Bulgaria Air

◦ Chalair Aviation

◦ Cyprus Airways

Estonian Air

Etihad Airways

Finnair

Flybe

Georgian Airways

Gol Transportes Aéreos

Japan Airlines

Jat Airways

Jet Airways

Luxair

Middle East Airlines

Rossiya

Royal Air Morac

TAAG Angola Airlines

Ukraine International Airlines

WestJet

Air France 777-328ER in SkyTeam livery, Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport

Air France: Old and new logo

Air France Airbus A321, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Air France Airbus (and American Airlines MD-80), Newark Liberty International Airport

Air France 747-400, Boston Logan International Airport

The End YouTube links:

◦ Air France Commercial 2011 - L'Envol - Mozart K488 Adagio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6bGnSEwdKY

◦ Air France Commercial 2013 ‘Women’ 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBqGYSimQOA

◦ Air France Safety Video (All French): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4uxveoggD0