Air France seeing a gradual revival in transatlantic business travel

Air France-KLM is seeing a gradual revival in business travel as companies are starting to send employees to in-person meetings and conferences following a hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s really coming back” on French domestic and North Atlantic long-haul flights, said Anne Rigail, head of the carrier’s French arm, at a press conference Tuesday in Paris. “The past two months have shown recovery of some large global corporate accounts.”

Air France-KLM said last week that surging demand for travel would drive a return to profitability this summer, with corporate trips back to about 70% of normal levels across the North Atlantic. Business-class and premium-economy long-haul trips provided a significant portion of profit margin for network carriers before the health crisis—and it remains unclear whether it will come back as before.

“Every week we have a bit more,” Rigail said of travel for business reasons. “It’s a lot of corporate team events and business negotiations. You can’t do everything on Zoom.”

The carrier is confident business travel will come back in North America “at a rather high level,” she said.

The company on Tuesday unveiled a 180 million-euro refurbishment of a dozen Boeing 777-300 jets that will include 48 full-flat business-class seats made by French supplier Safran SA and a roughly doubling of premium-economy seats to the same number. 

The move is part of the carrier’s effort to position itself as a premium brand and attract both business and leisure clients willing to pay more for greater comfort. 

Air France-KLM has been rapidly adding capacity and reinstating services as countries around the world unwind travel restrictions. 

“Will business travel come back quickly to 100% of what it was in 2019? That’s very difficult to say,” Rigail said. “It’s rising every week on all regions except Asia.”