Airlines Aigle Azur outlines expansion plans

On a press conference held in Paris, Frantz Yvelin, the president of Aigle Azur announced, that Aigle Azur will expand its historical network.

The carrier will restructure its European medium-haul network, as it aims to better the performance of existing traffic. A new daily served route between Paris-Orly and Milan will be established in September 2018. Also, Berlin will be served daily.

Furthermore, Aigle Azur has plans to start long-haul operations. From June 21, 2018, the airline will begin serving a route to Beijing three times a week. Additionally, São Paulo-Campinas will be connected with Paris-Orly three times a week from July 5th, 2018. As of September 2018, this route will be extended up to five flights per week.

Over the course of establishing new long-haul routes, Aigle Azur will take delivery of new aircraft. Two Airbus A330-200 will join the carrier´s fleet. The aircraft are configurated in a two-class configuration and will be deployed on the Beijing and Sao Paolo routes. Furthermore, the A330 will be used on the routes to Bamako, Porto, Algiers and Oran during Summertime.

The A330 will be equipped with 180° reclining seats in the executive class, state-of-the-art inflight entertainment systems, new cabin light and Internet on-board (as of July).

Yvelin accentuated, that the beginnings of long-haul operations are very important for the airline and especially for its shareholders. The airline will implement a new visual identity.

Aigle Azur has announced a new strategic partnership with catering company Newrest and a codeshare agreement with Air Caraïbes.

The carrier also wants to further strengthen its partnership with Azul Brazilian Airlines by adding codeshares on the route from Paris-Orly to Sao Paulo, which is the main hub of Azul. Abhi Shah, Chief Revenue Officer of Azul said: "This flight represents another milestone in the growth of Viracopos as a major hub of Azul. We are very excited about adding Paris to our ever growing domestic and international network."

Aigle Azur currently operates with an all-Airbus fleet, consisting of one Airbus A319, nine A320 and two A330.