A few weeks ago I wrote about how Air France had 21 Airbus A350-900s on order, the first of which will be delivered later this year. In addition to this being a new aircraft type for the airline, perhaps the most interesting part of this development is that Air France plans on introducing yet another…
Continue reading: Air France Schedules First North American A350 Route
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Air France new CEO and his chief of staff are both from Air Canada and grew the Toronto hub. Could be a sentimental decision for them.
Purely to compete with BA in the 'one-stop J to America/Canada' market in Europe - nothing more - hence why it is the same route. Any other ideas, Ben?
British Airways is flying their A350-1000 not A350-900 t Toronto*
Also just curious, KLM has an order for 7 A350-900s as well, will they join KLMs Fleet or did I hear the rumor that they were all going to Air France?
@ Alex Conway -- I didn't make that claim? I simply pointed out how it was interesting that the first North American destination for the new A350s of both Air France and British Airways is Toronto. That's a fact. Not at all suggesting they're doing it to compete with one another...
@ Will -- Typo on my part, thanks. Fixed. It's my understanding that Air France will be taking all the A350s.
It's interesting, Canadian cities seem to be consistent candidates for new aircraft types within North America. BA for the A35K (they also launched their first regular 787 service ever with Toronto), Montreal had the first AF 787s, KLM's 787-10s will make their North American debut in Toronto, and TAP's second A330NEO route to North America was Toronto. Cathy's first North American A359 route was Vancouver.
@Jeff you are confused,
The CEO of Air France is a French woman - Anne Rigail
The CEO of the AF-KLM group is indeed ex Air Canada and male.
Are they feeling pressure to compete against Air Canada on those routes? Unlike in the US, where their competition is offering a mixed bag of hard and soft products, Air Canada is at least pretty consistently decent.
It’s important to remember that Air Canada is super dominant for Canadian point of sale. There are few analogues among G7 majors. This includes not only the major hubs (YYZ YUL YVR) but also every small town in between. They are a tough competitor as literally *everyone* has discovered over the years.