From March 27th, Air France will inaugurate new non-stop service from its Charles de Gaulle hub to Tripoli, the capital of Libya. The route will initially be operated on a four-times weekly rotation with A320 equipment, increasing to a five-times weekly service from June 4th.
Air France will enter a market that is currently served by Libyan flag carrier Afriqiyah Airways which also operates A320 aircraft on the route six-times per week. Afriqyah also deploys A330 widebodied aircraft on the route once weekly.
According to IATA BSP data over 71,000 O+D passengers flew between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Tripoli between October 2009 and 2010 with Afriqiyah not surprisingly dominating the route in terms of passenger share.
Air France will be attracted to the Libyan market, not just because of an already strong network to Africa, but the fact that Libya has a relatively strong economy and growing tourism product. Oil revenues and exports mean that Libya has one of the highest GDP’s in Africa with the country business remaining strong. Major companies such as Shell and Exxonmobil have returned to Libya. The Libyan government is also heavily focused on growing its tourism product, potentially providing a good traffic mix for Air France.
The short sector length and the ability to operate a narrowbody on the sector will have been attractive to Air France, which already has an extensive African network. It operates over 208 weekly flights to 28 destinations in Africa according to January flightbase data.
IATA BSP data shows that over 38 million passengers flew between Europe and Africa between October 2009 and 2010, with Air France the second largest operator with a 9% share, second only to Royal Air Maroc which has a 10% share of this traffic.
Tripoli would seem a natural fit into Air France’s North African network. It already operates an extensive schedule to the major North African cities such as Cairo which Air France serves eight times weekly, Casablanca which is served four-times daily, Algiers which is served thrice-daily and Tunis which is served 27 times weekly.
Air France will also be confident of taking market share from Afriqiyah which is not part of a major global alliance and does not offer the same level of connectivity offered by Air France as it continues its African expansion, which includes new twice-weekly services to Freetown, Sierra Leone and Monrovia, Liberia which commence March 27th, and will be extension flights from its existing thrice-weekly Conakry service from Paris Charles de Gaulle.
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