AirFrance increases the frequency of flights between São Paulo and Paris in February

AirFrance-KLM announced this Tuesday (7) the expansion of the offer of flights between São Paulo and Paris as of February 2022.

On three of the seven days of the week, the frequency will be the same as the period before the health crisis, two flights a day. Currently, the company has a daily departure to the French capital from São Paulo.

In Rio de Janeiro, the five AirFrance routes to Paris will increase to six, also in February. The same expansion will take place in the KLM operation. From five weekly flights to Amsterdam, the company will increase to six in May next year.

The announcement, said Manuel Flahault, general director of the Air France-KLM group in South America, comes from the perception of a positive trend in travel demand, mainly driven by leisure tourism.

Until the pandemic, business trips and tours shared equally the occupation of the company’s flights. This year, the return to travel has been driven by leisure tourism.

In November of this year, AirFrance had already resumed the line between Fortaleza and Paris, with three weekly flights, the same level as the pre-pandemic. KLM still does not plan to resume operations in the capital of Ceará, nor does the group foresee operations in other regions at the moment.

“Today we want to consolidate and strengthen the operation in these squares. The reopening in Fortaleza is still very recent. We are always very cautious,” says Flahault.

“Working in other regions in Brazil is certainly important, but for that we have Gol”, says Steven van Wijk, the group’s commercial director in South America.

The AirFrance-KLM group works in partnership with the Brazilian airline not only on national routes, but also in places like Uruguay. About 25% of the group’s flights are issued through a partnership with Gol.

For the French-Dutch group, the time is for confidence in the resumption of economic activity, but also for caution in the face of the discovery of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Some countries have resumed lifting restrictions on travel or postponed the end of measures.​

“We understand that it is still early, but we are worried about some border closures. On the other hand, there was no overreaction, the PCR was implemented [tipo de exame para detecção do coronavírus]”, afirma Flahault.

So far, according to the executive, there has been no mass cancellation of tickets. Even in Europe, there is more doubt about the viability of maintaining travel than the impulse to suspend travel.

One of the group’s strategies has been to maintain more flexible conditions for rebookings and cancellations, which should be valid until next year.

Airlines were one of the many sectors that had their cashiers damaged by the pandemic. In the first months of the health crisis, when travel was banned in many countries, routes were paralyzed and flight availability was at up to 10% of capacity.

Now, part of the companies’ challenge is to equalize the rise in oil prices, which has an effect on aviation fuel, with the targets for reducing CO2 emissions. AirFrance-KLM says it has invested 2 billion euros (about R$15.8 billion) to renew its aircraft fleet, which should ensure a reduction of between 20% and 25% in the volume of emissions.