1/2 Entretien avec Anne Rigail, DG d'Air France

Hello Andrea, hello Frédéric. Back to profit. Ultimately, the health crisis was a blessing in disguise. We would have preferred to do without it since we still have to recover from the magnitude of the losses during the COVID crisis, but it taught us to work differently, and from that perspective, yes, I think we will reap many benefits. It means much more agility in the way we adjust our schedule. For example, at the beginning of the crisis, we used the peak period to go after more leisure destinations, where our clientele is usually less present, so we did that a lot. Today, we also do it during the winter peak around Christmas, developing destinations like Rovaniemi, Tromsø in Lapland. So a lot of agility. We also opened new destinations like Quebec and will open Ottawa in North America. We revised our network distribution due to the crisis and various restrictions, but we saw we could develop in North America, which performed extremely well. We have returned above pre-crisis capacities by finding growth drivers, like Ottawa for next summer.

The customer is returning, particularly on my routes. I think we're touching 80% of pre-crisis levels. The crisis changed customer behavior more profoundly on domestic point-to-point networks. For example, the Orly-Marseille shuttle has not recovered at all in terms of business traveler frequency. There is a shift to train and a preference for video conferencing for short meetings. However, on medium-haul and especially long-haul, we have seen a progressive and now quite solid recovery of business travelers. Customers are asking when we will reopen China; they desperately need to see their clients on both sides. So we have true resilience of long-haul traffic. There have also been major behavioral changes related to environmental concerns, sobriety guidelines, and ways of working that have reshaped our networks. Regarding fleet, we are refurbishing our 777s with new business seats, including a door for privacy, and deploying new A350s with similar suites. We are investing heavily in cabin reconfiguration and fleet renewal. Today we have 20 A350s, expecting 7 more this year, reaching 41 by 2025. On medium-haul, we are rapidly introducing 60 A220s, with 18 already and 13 arriving this year. This accelerated renewal reduces fuel consumption by 25% on long-haul and 20% on medium-haul, and improves customer experience. Our goal is to have over 45% of our fleet in new generation aircraft by 2025, and at least 70% by 2030.

The industry is at undercapacity today, aircraft orders are under tension on both medium and long haul. There is global demand. We need to be very vigilant on the environment, have transparent communication based on scientific facts, no false promises, and a real decarbonization action plan. We have set objectives validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, compatible with the Paris Agreement. Our first goal is to reduce emissions by 30% per passenger kilometer by 2030. That requires immense investments: accelerated fleet renewal at about 1 billion euros CAPEX per year, and sustainable fuels sourcing. We have signed contracts with suppliers like Neste, Total, and Engie, securing 3% of our 10% sustainable fuel target by 2030, starting this year with over 1% in our planes. These are considerable sums, billions by 2030. Part must be taken into account by customers transparently; we announced price increases from 1 to 8 euros for economy, up to 24 euros for business, relative to what we incorporate today. This is an adventure just beginning, with many uncertainties but also much commitment. We are securing maximum sustainable fuel because it is the nerve of war, the second decarbonization lever today, soon the first.