063 euros for a Paris New York against 2

The C38 will be the joker anti-crisis of Air France Marketed since April under the brand Premium Voyageur, this new class intermediate between the business and the eco will not appear until October 25, 2009 Paris-New York first, and then on Tokyo and Osaka, before gradually extended to almost all of the long-haul network here in the summer of 2010. Between the crash of the flight from Rio and the contraction of advertising expenditure, its start is rather quiet. But the company founded great hopes for this new product, first structural response to the alienation of customer business.

Until now, the classic cocktail promotions and reductions in costs and capacity did not correct traffic business, still down 21.4 in may, according to our information, or to compensate for the reduction in revenue, fell by about 20. In proposing a new seat comfort worthy of a class business in the 1990s (video and more) at a lower price by 60 to the current class Affairs, Air France hopes to not only stop the slide of a part of the customer business to the bottom of the device, but also convince some eco passengers pay a little more for a much higher comfortwith a round-trip fare from 1.063 euros for a Paris - New York against 2.638 euros in business and 573 euros in "y".

2,000 seats offered Premium

Launched two years ago, Bill C38 ("C" for the code of the class reservation Affairs and "38" for the spacing between seats in inches) but was not designed as a weapon anti-crisis. "The original idea was to encourage some passengers of economy class - well-to-do tourists, small and medium businesses, liberal professions - to range," explains Bruno Matheu, Deputy Managing Director, marketing and network of Air France-KLM. "It is also to fill a gaping hole in our range between class business and economics, which had been that widen over time.". But with the crisis, we have decided to accelerate its development. "Almost all of our long-haul fleet, with the exception of the Boeing 747 and the first Airbus A380, will be equipped by the end of the summer of 2010", he says.

Before Air France, other companies such as Virgin, Japan Airlines, Qantas and British Airways had already tested this concept with success, usually recycling their old business or simply by spacing more seats some economic rows, such as KLM. But in a short or scale as wide as Air France time, sales of 75 million investment. Is 21 to 28 seats per aircraft, these are some 2,000 Premium seats that should be offered daily in the summer 2010. With priority target, some 11 of long-haul passengers travelling today in full or on one of the three more high economy booking classes. As a comparison, and first class customer business represents 17 of long-haul traffic in Air France. Bruno Matheu sees also the Premium "a wonderful opportunity to change the way we manage our rates. Unlike the business, the new Premium Voyageur, should be very little discountée.