AIR France chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta claims the airline offers a more comprehensive hub operation at its two Paris airports than rival British Airways does in London.
Spinetta said that BA spreads itself too thinly by mixing flights at Heathrow and Gatwick with the result that Air France was able to offer a better global service from Paris.
The airline claimed that at Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle it offered between 3.8 and 5.3 daily frequencies to main medium-haul cities. By comparison, BA has between two and 3.7 at Heathrow and Gatwick.
“BA is not really a hub operation in London. Whereas we plan to make our hub even stronger and more powerful,” said Spinetta.
Half of Air France’s UK traffic connects in Paris to an onward destination, a fact the airline said was down to investment in medium-haul operations. BA, it claimed, concentrated on point-to-point long-haul traffic rather than on medium-haul connections. This is confirmed by BA’s strategy to cut down on what it says is poor yield transfer customers.
The French carrier also stressed that Paris was able to grow to accommodate Air France’s and partner Delta Air Lines’ demands for better connections, unlike slot-constrained Heathrow.
Spinetta also claimed Air France’s turnaround in fortunes from an inefficient state carrier to today’s success was due to the Paris Charles de Gaulle operation.