Air France is planning to open a new outstation lounge in the United States, but not necessarily at the airport you’d expect.
Continue reading: Air France Plans Lounge For Newark Airport (EWR)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Port Authority of NY/NJ has announced plans to build a new Terminal B. What impact will that have on a lounge?
Emirates has 1 daily flight from LAX and has its own lounge.
Consider SAS and Aeromexico will also likely use it.
@ NK3 -- Whoops, my mistake, I thought that was another space. Updating the post now.
@ Icarus -- Oh yeah, Emirates has several lounges at airports it serves once daily. I was specifically referring to Air France's lounge strategy.
It’s because Delta pressured AF/KLM with its majority 3.1% stake to build the lounge.
@ Aaron -- Yep! But they leave from a different pier, so it's not very useful in terms of lounges. Given that Air France-KLM now has a stake in SAS, you'd think there might be some opportunities to co-locate, but I guess gate space is very limited at the airport.
This would clearly indicate that AF intends to stick around which given DL and AF's history at EWR is notable.
AF does a good job of monetizing access to its lounges even outside of SkyTeam carriers so they could well see that potential.
having multiple SkyTeam lounges in different terminals at EWR is good for building the brand across all of NYC.
Virgin Atlantic has or had a lounge at Newark. Delta has a lounge at Newark. For the life of me, I don't understand Air France and KLM. Why does Air France need a lounge there? I also don't understand why Air France and KLM have separate lounges at airports like Houston. It makes no sense (or cents) at all, though I generally prefer Air France lounges to KLM or Delta lounges if only because Air France has real champagne for free.
Pretty wild, considering that they pulled out for quite a while, as well as Delta (from long haul) who temporarily took over operating the Paris flight.
Those are white board plans to begin with and years away from completion assuming it all moves ahead.
Virgin abandoned its EWR lounge and doesn't fly out of EWR any longer. La Compagnie uses the space and little of it has been renovated. Much of it still bears the original VS theme.
AF returned to EWR after an absence that started in 2012, but it was previously at EWR for many years.
Yeah, but Virgin Atlantic did continue to "have" a lounge even after it pulled out. I remember reading about the oddity.
My point still stands. Air France and KLM are a weird company.
Currently AF offers an extremely subpar airport experience for premium passengers. Terminal B is a disaster. If they want to actually compete against UA they need to invest or not bother to serve it at all. Many people from NJ are not interested in coming to JfK
The port authority just announced this week they’re starting project to replace Newark Terminal B. that won’t happen over night but still kind of crazy to pour any serious money into the existing mess at this point
Ben,
What were your thoughts of the LAX lounge, or have you been yet? Thought it was in the strangest location and couldn't even come close to competing with the star alliance lounge, even the centurion felt like a step up. Albeit, it was their opening week that I went, but definitely felt a bit sad.
Why didn’t they just take over the clubhouse space when VS abandoned the market
That whole New Jersey-Philadelphia-Baltimore area (half the Acela Corridor?) is a notable Skyteam weakspot.
Admittedly I'm biased here as I'm a big believer in the new SAS, but I suspect SK is giving them major strength or at the very least, confidence in the market.
BA poured crazy money into revamping its JFK T7 lounge just one year before it left T7.
My recollection is that air France used to send passengers to the Art & Lounge space before it closed, so that's probably it
AF now owns a stake in SAS that has a alot of flights from EWR. If AF opens a lounga at EWR, SAS lounge will prob close
Why a strange location ? The MSC is more efficient in terms of its proximity to the taxi and runways. It is certainly a very nice lounge.
Delta operates from an entirely different location at EWR rendering it impossible for AFKL customers to use. IAH is historical but a new consolidated lounge is better.
As for being a weird company, you mean most American ones ?
A bit off topic, believe a post on ORD's T5 lounge landscape would be interesting with so many recent and upcoming changes such as BA departing from T3 and SK joining Sky
Newark NJ airport - they just don't get it. Why not travel to other airports, and let it be said, copy them to Newark.
The worst airport we have been thru. Pass security, go to the gates, there is nothing. Even Hudson News is gone, never mind any other branded stores.
funny where you manage to draw the lines.
DL is the largest airline in NYC based on number of flights but their strength comes on the NY side of the NYC metro - which includes far more capacity at EWR.
and DL has the 2nd most number of flights at DCA.
if we cherrypick enough, we can always find strength and weakness somewhere.
I was in Newark yesterday. The part I was in has tons of shops. Is this a specific part of Newark that is bereft of stores?
Could it be that Air France is actually taking over the SAS lounge and rebranding it?