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Air France-KLM adds 4% capacity

Air France-KLM will increase capacity by more than 4% this summer, with growth driven by the group’s low-cost leisure subsidiary Transavia operating new routes around the Mediterranean.

Jean-Marc Janaillac, Air France-KLM chairman and chief executive, said: “We are choosing to step up our offensive on all markets. We are determined to take our share of this highly competitive market.”

The capacity growth includes a 3.9% increase in the group’s long-haul network, with new Air France services from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Seattle, Nairobi, Taiwan and Costa Rica, and recently launched Air France subsidiary Joon flying from Paris to Fortaleza in Brazil, and the Seychelles.

Air France will also switch the operation of its Paris services to Cairo, Tehran and Cape Town to Joon from the end of March.

KLM will add flights to Fortaleza and Mumbai and increase the frequency of its Amsterdam-New York services from 14 to 20 a week.

However, KLM will reduce services to Kuala Lumpur and suspend flights to Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan.

Yet the sharpest growth will be in short and mid-haul services operated by KLM subsidiary Transavia and Transavia France.

Transavia will operate new services to 24 destinations in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon, flying from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven, Paris-Orly, Lyon and Nantes.

The capacity from the Netherlands to Greece and Eastern Europe alone will increase 50% this summer and from France by 19% “to meet the demand of leisure travellers”.

Airline overcapacity in Europe led to the failures of Air Berlin and Monarch last autumn and to the entry into administration of Air France-KLM’s SkyTeam partner Alitalia.

MoreNo flights, no refunds for Air Berlin passengers

Monarch Airlines goes into administration

Alitalia administrators to avoid break up

 

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