Air France/KLM’s Joon – a Millennial-oriented airline brand, created to compete with the low-cost sector in Europe and long-haul, is to be axed just after one year.
The project was born during the reign of Jean Marc Janaillac, but with the appointment of the new CEO, Benjamin Smith, the Joon project was immediately challenged.
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Now the Franco-Dutch team officials announce that, after numerous talks with employees, customers and trade unions, “we have decided to pull the plug on the future of Joon brand project, and start the integration of Joon employees in Air France.”
“Although Air France claims that there were some positive results from the new brand, that was to compete with the various Eurowings, Norwegian, and such, there were also considerable difficulties met from the beginning by customers, employees, markets and investors with accepting the brand.”
“The multiplicity of brands has created complexity and unfortunately has weakened the strength of the Air France brand. Joon’s integration into Air France will bring many benefits, including fleet, product and brand harmonization. Operations management will benefit from it thanks to a common fleet of aircraft.” The Group’s note also announces that all Joon flights sold, or currently selling, will be operated by Joon until the project is completed and then resumed by Air France.
NEW AGREEMENT WITH THE UNIONS
In addition, a new agreement has been signed between Air France and the cabin crew, with the support of the three trade unions representing the crews: Snpnc, Unac and Unsa-Pnc. After the agreement signed on 19 October by the majority of the trade unions, in fact, the CEO of Air France-KLM continued the dialogue with the social partners.
«I am very satisfied with this new balanced agreement that represents the end of the category negotiations with our cabin staff,” underlined Benjamin Smith, who has a renewed collaboration with the trade unions as a priority of his mandate.
“With this agreement, I hope that trust and dialogue between AirFrance and all our employees continue to improve because I firmly believe that it is through the support of all that we will become world leaders.”
According to the Group’s note, the agreement improves the working conditions of the cabin crew, resolving most of the concerns and improving the service offered to customers, thus improving Air France’s position in a highly competitive market.