Air France Keen To Enter South India

Jyoti Koul - New Delhi

While introducing its new general manager for India, Air France announced its new flight schedule for the winter season. The airline has appointed Dominique Gass as the new general manager (India, Nepal Sri Lanka Bangladesh Bhutan and Maldives) in place of Jean-Louis Calmettes.

To increase capacity during the winter season (October -April) the airline has changed its configuration by operating a 400-seater Boeing 747 aircraft in place of (250 seater) airbus aircraft which will translate into 45 per cent increase in the capacity. However, Boeing 747 operations will be limited to the winter period only. The winter schedule will include daily flights from Paris-Mumbai-Paris and Paris-Delhi -Paris. What is more, the 747 aircraft will be well equipped with new Air France products. There will be a new business class with separate flat beds, which means there will be 20 to 27 per cent of more space. But there will be no first class as it will only have business and economy classes. "The demand for the first class has declined but there is a great demand for the other two classes," said Jean-Louis Calmettes. The airline is also exploring the possibilities of entering the south Indian market. It is looking at new gateway cities in the country. "We are planning to expand in India as we need more frequencies into India. As per our corporate policy, India is a focus market. Therefore, in south, we are looking at Chennai, Bangalore and also Hyderabad," Calmettes informed. However, company officials said that they are not interested in India's open sky policy as that is only short-term. " The open sky policy is not the way we work. We work on a permanent policy. A policy that is commercially viable and fixed with a long-term vision. We are not against the policy but it has to have a vision. We are very confident of the India market as it offers possibility to increase flights. So, there has to a fixed policy," he added. Along with India, the airline is focusing on the emerging markets like China and Brazil.