Marnix Fruitema, Senior Vice President Asia Pacific International Group Air France-KLM

What is the perception of Air France in Asia?
Marnix Fruitema- Both brand of KLM and Air France have helped establish a very strong position in Asia. Both airlines have strong links: Air France is for example number 1 in Europe to Japan, doing even better than Japanese carriers on the segment Paris-Japan. And KLM is traditionally strong in markets such as Indonesia. To match the reputation of excellence of many carriers on that segment, we recently invested heavily in our product improvement. Paris CDG Airport is one of Europe’s most efficient hub and it has turn to us into a state-of-the-art gateway. In the last few years, we invested heavily into new terminals, new lounges, new self check-in facilities. We have then seen a rise into the satisfaction index of our travellers. From next year we will roll out a new La Première product as well as an improved Business Class on Air France. KLM also upgraded this year its business class to a flat-bed seat.

Air France-KLM opened a high number of destinations on the Asian continent over the last three years. What does the Asian market represent for the airline’s group?
M.F.- We are one of Europe’s most active airline group offering over 200 flights to 24 destinations. Asia is of utmost importance for our growth strategy. First, economic growth in Asia continues to average 4.5% a year-and even 6% in the ASEAN-. This is to be compared with stagnating numbers for Europe. The continuous urbanization and the growth of Asian middle classes will likely stimulate the traffic. They are always uncertainties for the future. But if Asia continues to stimulate consumption, it will drive growth and balance weakening exports. Asia is consequently one of our industry’s fastest growing segment. And we want to rip the benefits of that growth at Air France-KLM. This is why we recently inaugurated new flights between Amsterdam and Fukuoka in Japan with KLM and between Paris and Kuala Lumpur with Air France.

How about the Chinese market?
M.F.- Air France-KLM is leading in Europe also because of the exceptional number of Chinese partners. We have strong marketing agreements and code share flights with our Skyteam partners such as China Southern, China Eastern and China Airlines. This helped us to also develop in recent years non stop flights from both Amsterdam and Paris CDG to secondary destinations in China. We launched frequencies to Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Xiamen. If we include Taipei and Hong Kong, we already serve 9 destinations in Greater China.

Air France recently launched flights to Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Why do you decided to move into Malaysia, a difficult market for European airlines until recent years?
M.F.-Compared to a decade ago, a lot has changed in Malaysia. The country is booming economically with growth rates of 6% which fuels the expansion of the Malaysian middle class. We also realized that over 120,000 French travellers go every year to Malaysia for holiday. And there is some 250 French companies present in the country. In total, we now offer 17 weekly flights to Malaysia, 3 with Air France and 14 with KLM. One of KLM flight goes further to Jakarta, offering by then short and easy connections between France and Indonesia via Kuala Lumpur.

Is in fact Indonesia Air France next destination in Asia?
M. F.- Indonesia is indeed a very strong market thanks to political stability and a dynamic economic environment. The Indonesian airline’s market is in fact booming and we definitely foresee an increase in our services, especially a flight to Paris. It will absolutely come! Especially, as the integration of Indonesian national carrier Garuda into Skyteam next year will further stimulate the market.

Which are the further potential destinations to expand that you forecast?
M.F.- We still believe that Mainland China has room to grow for us with new destinations but also Korea and Taiwan which still remains underdeveloped from a tourism point of view. We for example see a lot of demand for Pusan in South Korea. This however might not necessarily transpose into the opening of direct flights from Amsterdam or Paris. But we will further work with our Asian partners to optimize our schedules. We cannot fly everywhere and we continue to favour the strengthening of our existing network. Regarding the use of the Airbus A380, we will continue to put the aircraft where we see a good mix of leisure traffic and high yields’ demand.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews