One team, 4 brands, One roof

The “key to our success,” observed Fabien Pelous, vice-president for Air France-KLM Canada and the general manager sales Canada for the Delta-KLM-Air France-Alitalia joint venture, will be “providing more flight options and frequencies to our customers” and that can “only be offered through pulling [our] forces together.” Pelous made this observation as he welcomed a group of 65 travel agents, tour operators, tourist board officials, and carrier staffers at the official opening of the carriers’ new joint offices in Toronto. Explaining how the airline industry business model has changed in recent years — where the power of a dominant national carrier has given way to the strength of alliances and joint ventures, Pelous told the gathering that the Delta-KLM-Air France-Alitalia joint venture will supply 26% of the industry’s total transatlantic capacity. In Toronto for the celebrations of the new office, Atlanta-based John Caldwell, managing director national sales & specialty sales for Delta Air Lines, observed of the new venture: “Success is also people-driven and today we are in the presence of a dedicated team now brought closer together.” And that team is going to be busy as the three European partners of the joint venture will be offering 69 weekly, direct flights to Amsterdam, Paris or Rome from Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal during the summer of 2012. For its part, Delta will be providing some 80 daily flights from 12 Canadian cities to eight of its destinations in the United States.