Air France celebrates 20 years at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport
PHOTO: Onboard Air France's business class service yesterday (c) Sery Kim
I'm so thankful to my friends at Air France for inviting me across the pond to France in order to celebrate Air France's 20th anniversary of its hub at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, the most powerful hub in Europe. Close to 6,500 Air France staff assist 100,000 customers every day. There are also 25,000 connecting opportunities available every week.
PHOTO: The media kit at the press conference at Paris-Charles de Gaulle (c) Sery Kim
I am not much of what they call in aviation "AvGeek," a friendly moniker for "Aviation Geek," i.e. someone who is really into all the literal nuts-and-bolts of bringing an airplane to life as well as anything related to the aviation industry. I just love to fly quality products and so this is why I travel with Air France when they ask me to go: quality. Everything from planes, to comfort of seats, to entertainment, to especially food has been rapidly improved by Air France with a focus quality.
But one of the biggest changes in quality is the ramp-up of Air France's digital operations. While Air France still does not have wi-fi onboard (something they are hoping to correct shortly), at every other stage of their trip, Air France customers are accompanied by simplified and intuitive digital solutions such as:
247 self-service kiosks to save time by printing your boarding pass or baggage tag;
58 automatic baggage drop-off counters to drop off your baggage in 30 seconds;
56 self-boarding gates to board an A320 with 178 passengers in 12 minutes;
2,500 tablets used by Air France ground staff to provide customers with a quick and personalized response wherever they are in the airport.
PHOTO: A very calm and relaxing building block area in the new wing of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (c) Sery Kim
Hopefully Air France will continue the transition to digital as it also focuses on expanding flight routes. In the interim, customers can enjoy knowing that an Air France experience is one which remains worthwhile!
