Air France–KLM will increase its operations in India to 54 weekly flights in the upcoming winter schedule, up from the current 42 weekly flights. KLM will operate up to 27 flights a week, with the remaining 27 operated by Air France.
“India is the world's fastest-growing aviation market and is incredibly important for Air France–KLM. We consider India as one of our strategic destinations,” said Stefan Gumuseli, General Manager India & Middle East at Air France-KLM.
Gumuseli expects robust demand from India to continue on the back of robust infrastructure growth, new travellers and new passport holders exploring international destinations.
Laure Daynie, Country Manager, Air France–KLM, India, said that demand in the premium segment, including business class and newly introduced premium comfort class, has seen sharp growth and the airline will increase its offering across categories.
The airline group currently operates from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and has a codeshare agreement with IndiGo, India’s largest airline, connecting dozens of Indian cities with major European hubs.
Air France–KLM’s decision to increase operations from India comes at a time when Indian airlines have slashed their frequency across Europe as part of their cost reduction effort in the aftermath of the West Asia crisis and inability to access the Pakistan airspace. Daynie said that they added capacity at the peak of the West Asia conflict, whether it was in terms of aircraft or in terms of frequency.
While the airline will be increasing its frequency to 20 weekly flights from Mumbai, it does not want to split its operations between Mumbai airport and Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA).
"From an efficiency perspective, we have teams on the ground, and to split, we need to have new teams; we have ground handling teams already at Mumbai airport. There will be more challenges to train (people) and split operations to also have (operations) in Navi Mumbai. From that perspective, splitting is not an option,” said Gumuseli.
He added, "We have our connectivity in Mumbai, and Mumbai airport is closer to the city. From that perspective, our wish would be to remain where we are today, and splitting is not an option.”
Air France–KLM's position comes amid a proposal from Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the operator of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, to shift a portion of airlines’ international traffic to NMIA from October 1, as redevelopment of Terminal 1 is soon to commence at the old airport. Both airports are operated by Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) group.
