Air France has introduced its Joon airline to Cape Town this week in a move to encourage sustainable growth in the city.
Joon, which is described as the baby sister of Air France, will take over the airline’s direct route between Cape Town and Paris.
Joon CEO, Jean-Michel Mathieu, said the introduction of the airline represents the new generation journey by Air France. Its target is younger travelers, with the cabin crew wearing white sneakers and blue polo shirts.
According to Cape Air Access, a partnership between Wesgro, the government of the Western Cape, the City of Cape Town, Airports Company South Africa, South African Tourism and Cape Town Tourism, the French market has been earmarked as one of Cape Town’s fastest growing markets.
Between November 2017 and April 2018, South Africa received a total of 17 574 French arrivals through Cape Town International Airport. The French market is also the sixth largest market source for the Western Cape.
The two top age groups to visit South Africa from France and Europe are the ages of 25 to 34 years, and 35 to 44 years old.
The Western Cape tourist arrivals boast a solid youth market, with the 25 to 34 year age bracket showing consecutive growth between 2013 an 2016. This indicates sound prospects of growth for 2018.
Joon aims to offer innovative and high quality at competitive pricing. The sister airline will allow Air France to keep on growing and increase its market share.
An Air France representative indicated that the aim will be to make passengers aware of the water situation in Cape Town and that the water situation has so far not impacted bookings. Despite the drought, there has been an increase in air passengers to the Mother City.
Mathieu is confident that Joon and Air France will continue to grow without hinderance from the current drought crisis, as a 22.9% year-on-year increase in booking from France to Cape Town is expected.
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