According to an internal memo from the UNAC syndicate, the low-cost spinoff that was conceived as a millennial-targeted airline will be reabsorbed into Air France.
-“The brand was difficult to understand by customers,” says the airline.
-“After numerous exchanges with employees and customers, and discussions with the unions, we have decided to launch a project on the future of the brand Joon, and the integration of employees and aircraft from Joon to Air France.”
Photo : Eric Salard
The internal memo from the cabin crew syndicate celebrates the decision of putting the Joon brand to rest.
“The company has outsourced 10% of our jobs towards Joon as punishment for the strike of the Summer 2016,” said UNAC in its memo. “It is almost 2,000 jobs that have disappeared these last 10 years.”
Air France says that the multiplicity of brands “has created complexity and unfortunately weakened the power of the brand.” According to the airline, integrating both brands will bring benefits, “including modernization of the fleet, products of the brand, and operations management would be improved by a common fleet of aircraft.”
Joon was launched in December 2017 as a low-cost spinoff of Air France, targetting Millennials looking for different in-flight experiences.
Only 13 months after its launch with great fanfare by former Air France CEO, Jean-Marc Janaillac, Joon is officially buried.
This news comes as no surprise. The group’s new CEO, Benjamin Smith, noted that he didn’t see logical sense in the creation of Joon.
Cabin crew back to Air France
Photo : Joon
With the integration of both airlines, about 600 Joon cabin crew will be absorbed back into the Air France operation. “An agreement on their integration has been signed by Air France’s management and the airline’s unions,” said UNAC. As reported in local French newspaper, La Tribune, the integration of Joon cabin crews back into Air France will be a positive thing.
Photo : Air France
“The creation of Joon was the result of Air France’s inability to lower its own costs. Joon makes it possible to profitably exploit lines on which Air France loses money and to reopen others which have recently been abandoned for lack of profitability.”
Benjamin Smith has managed not only to negotiate with unions and come to an agreement with them, putting a halt to the crippling strikes that took Air France down the road of operational inviability last year. With Joon gone away, Smith and company will surely find a more suitable way to move forward as one united entity.
Sources: Joon, Le Figaro, Google
