Home > On board > ‘Opening a flight route is a way of reaffirming the bonds between two countries:’ Edouard Hanak, network planner at Air France
How does an airline like Air France decide which new routes to open? Edouard Hanak, network planner, explains.
On 7 December 2024, Air France opened a new Paris-Manila route, and it was Edouard Hanak who studied the project’s feasibility. After studying at HEC Paris and acquiring a first experience in real estate as a financial analyst, Edouard Hanak joined Air France in September 2023. Since then, he has been the network planner for Asia in the long-haul team for the Programme Department. But what is a network planner? The EnVols editorial brings you this interview. He explains:
Edouard Hanak: Air France has always been a dream of mine. When I was a kid, I travelled a lot with Air France and I think it’s a flagship airline. It serves as a stand-in for France all over the world and promotes our country, our culture, our gastronomy… It’s a genuine source of pride. The perk of having chosen this position at Air France is that we have a fleet of over 200 aircraft, with a particularly diversified long-haul network. So there are major strategic issues at stake for the Group.
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E.H.: A network planner draws up the flight schedule and provides analyses for potential route openings. We work by season blocks. For us, the year is split in two parts: summer starts at the end of March and finishes at the end of October, while winter starts at the end of October and finishes at the end of March. This is important because every destination has its own seasonal considerations. We start building a season a year or six months before the first flights.
As network planners, we have three main missions. Firstly, to optimise the current Air France network. At the start of each new season, we ask ourselves the same question: “At what rate do we want to operate flights? For example, we know that Japan does very well from April to early May, but June is a quieter month. We allocate our flight capacity week by week, depending on the each route’s seasonality. We also look at the timetable, the type of aircraft, our competitors’ routes, and so on.
After this optimisation process, we evaluate new potential. We look at the “blind spots,” i.e. the list of destinations not served by Air France on the long-haul network. We study the interest and market size of about 5 to 10 destinations per geographical area. We ask ourselves who would be the customer base for this destination, Business or leisure, what position can we take up, is there a direct competitor? It was in this context that we identified Manila and that I finally worked on the project.
Finally, our third item concerns everything to do with partnership studies. In fact, we make sure to maintain a territorial network outside of the destinations we serve. To do this, we rely on local partners to offer our customers different connections.
E.H.: Every week is different, but it’s still a very analytical job (analysing economic results, flight load factors, adjusting schedules, market analysis, etc.). We also all have cross-functional tasks, which account for about a third of our working time.
E.H.: Once the business case is validated, we go through an internal validation process. The project goes up to our CEO, goes through Commodity Exchange, and gets shared in joint bodies with KLM… Then we submit a programme to the local civil aviation authorities and a request for a slot – that is, a request for take-off and landing slots at the airport concerned.
Depending on the country and destination, there is a whole lot of administrative and legal processes to go through. Such was the case for Manila, as Air France did not serve the Philippines. We had to set up a local company, launch a website, establish internal practices, define prices and inventory strategy.
E.H.: For all route launches we plan twin events, for the first flight’s boarding and arrival, but also for boarding of the first return flight. All the relevant stakeholders are involved, be it the Air France management, the local authorities and the media. And there’s always a ribbon cutting ceremony, of course, it’s tradition (laughs)!
For example, for the first departure to Manila on Saturday 7 December, the ambassador of the Philippines to France came to Roissy-CDG airport to cut the ribbon. Upon her arrival, we had organised a major function at the airport. In attendance were the Secretary General of the Quai d’Orsay, the French Ambassador to the Philippines and the Philippines Minister of Transport. On the first return flight, a whole delegation of Philippines authorities came to France to promote tourism and plan meetings with French economic players.
The opening of a new route is often an opportunity to reaffirm the links between two countries. In the case of the Philippines, this was especially important as there had been no direct service between France and the archipelago for some 20 years… It was a historic opening!
