Summary

  • Air France-KLM CEO concerned about jetway shortage at CDG, causing daily struggles for aircraft parking.
  • Ben Smith calls for an infrastructure upgrade at CDG’s existing facilities.
  • Air France is preparing for the busy summer travel season and the Olympics, making changes to the airport-side experience and expanding operations.

Air France-KLM CEO has expressed his concerns about the shortage of jetways at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and some other infrastructure shortcomings and how they are costing the airline money. This comes ahead of the Paris Olympics, as the city prepares for an influx of tourists and athletes from across the globe to participate in the event.

Daily struggle for aircraft parking

Ben Smith, the CEO of the Air France-KLM group, recently spoke with reporters during the group’s 20th anniversary and discussed, among other things, the need for an infrastructure boost at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Smith was frustrated with the lack of enough jetways at the airport and said that the airline is struggling for adequate parking space daily as a result. He explained that things get particularly tricky during the morning rush hours when many planes are left without a jetway or “contact” gate. This also causes the inconvenience of transporting passengers on buses.

Air France Airbus A319 and KLM Boeing 737-800 at Paris Charles De Gaulle International Airport CDG shutterstock_1415057198

Photo: Georges Hanna | Shutterstock

Smith further added that because of this issue, Air France has to enter negotiations with Aeroports de Paris, which operates Charles de Gaulle Airport, “depending on what the other airlines have, to try to find parking positions for our fleet.” According to a company spokesperson, Air France is being forced to park 10% of medium-haul flights and 5% of long-haul on remote stands.

As reported by Reuters, Smith doesn’t necessarily want a new terminal, as that would cost a lot of time and money. Instead, he favors upgrading the infrastructure of the existing facilities. He was quoted as saying,

“We’re not talking about new capacity. We’re talking about improving what’s already there. It’s really important for us.”

Airport layout issues

According to Smith, among the things that need improvement at CDG is the long distance to maintenance hangars that keep the planes busy for longer hours because of all the extra towing time. He even cited examples of other global airports that are much more efficient in terms of getting their planes to maintenance facilities much quicker.

Air France Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Photo: Teal Sun | Shutterstock

As pointed out by the Reuters report, Terminal 2 at CDG, where Air France operates mainly as a hub, was opened in 1982 and was originally designed to keep the time from gate to kerb short. Even Air France CEO Anne Rigail says that it’s not the ideal layout and quite difficult to operate.

Olympic Games rush

CDG is staring at busy weeks and months ahead for two reasons. Firstly, after the lull of the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer travel season is expected to be quite busy this year, keeping almost all major global airports extremely busy.

Secondly, Paris will host the Summer Olympics in July and will see more than usual passenger and aircraft traffic as travelers will flock to the city from around the world. ADP’s deputy CEO Edward Arkwright, however, recently said that the “infrastructure is ready, the staff have been recruited and processes have been defined.”

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Air France is also introducing changes to the airport-side experience of La Première ahead of the summer games and has also expanded its international operations to cater to the increased demand. Hopefully, CDG will handle the travel rush smoothly without any major issues.

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