AF-KLM simplifies Europe

AIR France-KLM’s codeshare deal with Qantas has made it easier for Australian travel agents to sell Europe via the airlines, the group’s SVP Asia Pacific Antoine Pussiau told Travel Daily yesterday during his first visit down under.

Pussiau said the partnership had seen “a very good response from the market” and provided travellers with one ticket, one code, no need to pick up luggage at the connection point and the ability to earn miles.

The Air France codeshare kicked off in Jul (TD 24 May) and saw the reintroduction of QF-coded services on AF flights to Paris via Hong Kong and Singapore and was followed by sister carrier KLM at the end of Oct (TD 11 Oct).

The KLM deal saw the KL code placed on Qantas services between Singapore and Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, while QF codeshares on KLM aircraft onward from Singapore to Amsterdam.

Pussiau told Travel Daily that Australia was an important market to the group.

“Australia is bringing quite a significant contribution to our sales in South East Asia, to our routes to South East Asia, so we want to continue to grow this market and mainly through our partnerships,” he said.

“We are very confident that we can grow this market.”

Pussiau said the ultimate target for Australia was to bring more Australian passengers to Singapore and Hong Kong, paving the way for the group to up frequency or the size of aircraft.

Next year KLM will mark 100 years, with the carrier “the oldest airline with the same name since the beginning in the world”.

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