GreenBkk.com Aviation | Air France focuses on Asia-Pacific

Air France focuses on Asia-Pacific

Air France-KLM is giving the Asia-Pacific its largest capacity boost among the areas it serves as the European airline group gears up to tap the world's fastest-growing air transport market.

Marnix Fruitema, senior vice-president for the Asia-Pacific, said the group will raise capacity in the region by 10% this year, its largest increase, followed by Africa and and Latin America.

Air France-KLM now operates 272 weekly long-haul flights between Paris and Amsterdam in Europe and 23 Asian destinations - 202 flights operated by Air France and KLM and 70 by Asian partner airlines on a code-share basis.

"We want to reinforce our leading position in Asia in this exciting new year in terms of both tourism and economic development," he said in Bangkok.

The group is concentrating on Asian markets such as China, Japan, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia including Bangkok and Singapore.

It now serves five Chinese cities - Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hangzhou - and late next month will add Xiamen, said Mr Fruitema.

He said the airline is also keen on entering India, another major market.

For Thailand, Air France will on May 9 replace its Airbus A340-300 jetliner on its daily Bangkok-Paris flight with a new Boeing B777-200 wide-body jet featuring an enhanced business class.

Luc Delaplace, Air France-KLM's general manager for Thailand, said the change of aircraft will enable the airline to boost its capacity on the Paris-Bangkok route by more than 70% from what it was during the 2010 summer traffic period that extended from the end of March to the end of October.

The new B777-200 carries 309 passengers against 275 for the A340-300.

KLM, which in 1929 became the first international airline to land in Bangkok, will also continue to offer seven weekly flights on the Bangkok-Amsterdam route, using B747-400 jumbo jets through this year's summer traffic period.

Meanwhile, on March 28, Air France will introduce a new thrice-weekly service to Phnom Penh from Paris via Bangkok, becoming the only European carrier linking Cambodia with Europe.

Credit: Bangkok Post (www.bangkokpost.com)