‘A/France/KLM/ Delta Airlines pact will benefit Nigerians’

AS part of it efforts to consolidate its business performance this year, AirFrance-KLM has announced plans to expand its United States’ routes for Nigerian travelers.

Stating this in Lagos, the airline’s General Manager in Nigeria, Mr Michel Colleau declared that the airline would commence new destinations which would be of interest to its Nigerian customers.

Colleau, also used the occasion to attribute the reasons why the airline could not operate the whole of its network in 2018 to what he called crew shortage.

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While declaring that some destinations had been suspended for summer 2019 with Port Harcourt being one of them, Colleau said  “We are going to keep an office and representation in Port Harcourt and try to convince passengers to operate via Lagos or Abuja. We expect to come back one day to  Port Harcourt but this may not be possible due to the lack of crew for 2019 to operate Port Harcourt in an efficient and fair way for the Port Harcourt customers.”

Talking on the airlines’ partnership with Delta Airlines, the General Manager emphasised how the partnership would allow the airlines to work together to offer joint opportunity for corporate account. “We will operate to Las Vegas, daily to Boston and work together with Delta Airlines in a much better way. It is a lot of opportunities for the Nigerian customers because the US market is one of the biggest markets with connection to 256 cities in the US with Delta, AirFrance and KLM.

“Last year, we were offering corporate fares for AirFrance and KLM on one side and corporate fares on Delt a Airlines on the other side. Now, we are merging it. We are working together with Delta for the benefit of the Nigerian customers. With the partnership with Delta, this will be the strongest alliance out of Nigeria to the US.

“We have the best programme for small and medium enterprises which offers them opportunities on their flights. It is called BlueBiz. This is something all the other European carriers do not have. This is like the loyalty programme for small and medium carriers. Every time you travel, you accumulate points.