Air France-KLM targets 85% load factor on KL-Paris route

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 12, 2013): Air France-KLM is expecting 85% load factor by year-end for its new Kuala Lumpur-Paris route which begins on April 23, despite competition on the route set to be stiff with both Malaysia Airlines and Air France-KLM to ply the route.

Last month MAS announced it would start its Airbus 380 on its daily flights between Kuala Lumpur-Paris from March 1, 2013. The route was previously served by the Boeing 777, a 282 seater. The A380 seats 494. The flight will also offer a first class cabin to passengers.

Air France-KLM which already has a KLM flight to Paris via Amsterdam from Kuala Lumpur, plans to serve the direct Kuala Lumpur – Paris route with a Boeing 777-200ER on the Kuala Lumpur-Paris. According to the airline's website that type of aircraft seats between 247 and 309 passengers.

Air France-KLM country manager for Malaysia Estee Ng said Malaysia is the 15th destination for the airline and an average of 110,000 French tourists visit Malaysia every year. "From what we have observed, 55% of our traffic to Malaysia is business oriented while the balance is tourism," she told reporters at a media briefing on Air France's plan for Malaysia this year.

Ng added that there is a lot of excitement in the French market, with a lot of activities to promote tourism in Malaysia. The strong French business community in Malaysia, with about 200 French companies also helps, she said.

Currently, Air France-KLM offers 17 weekly flights from Malaysia to Europe, out of which seven are with KLM codeshare partner Malaysia Airlines, from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam. It operates 205 weekly flights between Paris, Amsterdam and Asia.

"What we are offering now to Malaysians for the first time ever is they could fly directly from Kuala Lumpur to Paris non-stop. From Paris they could either come back directly to Kuala Lumpur or they could choose to stop at our other hub in Amsterdam and then come back to Kuala Lumpur," Ng said.

Air France-KLM's network covers 230 destinations in 113 countries from its hubs at Paris (Charles de Gaulle) and Amsterdam (Schiphol).

Air France and KLM are members of the SkyTeam alliance which has 15 member airlines, offering customers access to a global network of over 14,500 daily flights to 926 destinations in 173 countries.

-thesundaily.