After a hard strike which almost paralyzed the planes of the French national company for two weeks, traffic has resumed normally for a week on the Paris Charles-de-Gaulle hub and on the entire Air France network. However, the reservation book is at its lowest. And even if Air France has managed crisis communication very well, it must now deploy commercial weapons that will allow it to bounce back quickly.

Ground and headquarters staff are tired

This social movement, which lasted from September 15 to 30, 2014, tired not only the ground staff who had to manage the irregularities and therefore the legitimate dissatisfaction of the passengers, but also the headquarters staff who had to manage the planning of flights and communication.

The misunderstanding of the strike generated serious tensions between the flight crew and the other

At the beginning of the second week of the movements, the tensions generated by the conflict made themselves felt. The public demonstration of these tensions was the “anti-strike” demonstration by staff in front of the Air France headquarters in Roissy.

But the most serious tensions are not public: intimidation of non-striking personnel on the pilots’ internal forums, anger of non-PNT and very often badly paid personnel who do not understand that one can go on strike when one is paid 10,000 euros net per month.

The most scandalous being that the most virulent striker pilots were those with maximum seniority, and flying long-haul… And which were therefore not going to be affected by the most important transformations of the Perform 2020 plan, revealed a few days earlier (Development of Transavia and concentration of Point-to-Point around the HOP! brand).

The “brain drain” that comes at the wrong time

This context of the return of the strike at Air France is accompanied by a rather worrying flight from the leaders.

In addition to the talented Florence Parly, politely disembarked from Point-à-Point at the beginning of September, it is an Air France elephant, Bruno Matheu, who is poached by Etihad this week to manage alliances and create synergies in the companies where Etihad took large holdings. Bruno Matheu is a man of numbers more than product, and this position suits him perfectly.

A few additional departures from the Air France ExCom are announced…

Crisis communication was carried out smoothly, but…

It must be conceded: although this strike was long and hard, Air France was able to manage its crisis communication with a master hand and proactively take care of customers in difficulty.

So the airports were not overrun with overdue passengers, and most problems were resolved over the phone or through social media… Which have nevertheless shown their limit in terms of Servicing, because they are literally overwhelmed (processing time> 24h).

In addition, Air France made massive use of digital for its mass communication: e-mail, YouTube, Twitter.

Same thing for the crisis exit communication, which made massive use of digital slots, and in particular this apology video , with a not very pleasant text.

But will communicating the facts and apologizing return to an acceptable level of reservations? What is Air France going to do concretely to win back its customers?

… The offensive goes through aggressive commercial offers

To boost its reservations, Air France must make a significant effort in terms of prices: major promotions in all classes to fill planes and ensure impeccable service.

However, at the moment, it’s a bit of a lean cow: a poor promotion in economy class received on Tuesday, even less advantageous than that of last year, and a few destinations in Business but with fairly low reduction rates.

Above all, Air France has to deal with an exceptional British Airways promotion next to which the AF fares seem to be disproportionate!

FlyingBlue must be the strong arm of this commercial offensive

Air France has still not understood the interest of a commercial offensive through its FlyingBlue loyalty program.

However, the interest is major: the base of loyal and high-contribution customers is the one that must be won back.

A few ideas, in bulk, that could have germinated:

• Lower the qualification threshold in miles in higher statuses for foreign customers, and bring those of French customers up to the level of foreigners for 2014. The strike surely penalized many frequent flyers who could not maintain their status for 2015. Serious error: this problem must be addressed as soon as possible
• Complete a challenge: Fly X flights with us until December 31, earn X qualifying miles, or double qualifying miles by December 31
• Make massive promotions on bonuses, to fill planes and empty mileage accounts

Conclusion

Even if the management of operations during the crisis was remarkable (and this is the first time), even if Air France measures the devaluation of its brand caused by the strike, the company does not react in the right way, namely bring the customer back into its fold, even if it means trimming its margins for a time, by betting on its loyalty program.