Air France long haul from Paris after four years: the PNC agreement, the Africa and Caribbean network, the CDG and Orly split and the French service style
-
#1 Air France, Orly, and I have replied in the French threads for months without writing the airline. Here is Air France from the galley, for the French applicants and for the crew from elsewhere who wonder what the French legacy carrier is like inside.
The two bases
Charles de Gaulle: the hub, the long haul to everywhere, the enormous crew community, the north of Paris. Orly: the smaller base, the Caribbean and Indian Ocean long haul (the DOM routes to Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion, Cayenne), the domestic and some Europe, the south of Paris. The crew are assigned by need and the Orly crew have a specific identity around the DOM flying, which is French long haul to French territories with French passengers.
The PNC agreement
The collective agreement negotiated by the SNPNC and UNSA PNC and the other unions, public, French employment law, the French social protections, a seniority system, the pay in euros on a legacy scale with the long haul allowances. The strikes are part of the culture and the agreement is defended. The French crew from the low cost carriers describe the Air France contract as the reason they wanted in.
The network from the galley
The Africa network is one of the largest from Europe (Dakar, Abidjan, Douala, Libreville, Bamako, Niamey, Cotonou, Lomé, Nairobi, Johannesburg and more), with the francophone Africa flights full of a specific mix of business, family and diaspora, and the crew who love Africa bid it for years, as the KLM thread describes. The Caribbean from Orly. The Americas, Asia, the Middle East from CDG. The Paris to everywhere spine.
The French service style
Formal, precise, the meal as a meal (the French menu, the wine as a point of pride, the cheese course), a reserve that the Anglophone passengers read as coolness and the French passengers read as correctness, and a warmth underneath that takes a year to show to the crew from elsewhere. The Air France crew are proud of the service in a way that is national.
The crew community
Large, unionised, with the strike memory, the seniority culture, the Paris commute (the crash pads near Roissy and the southern crew's TGV, as the Marseille thread described), and the specific French crew room humour. The foreign crew (the language hires for the Asia routes) learn the French and the culture and are a small, respected group.
Versus the other French options
Transavia France (the group's low cost from Orly, the Paris to the sun, the sector pay), the French easyJet bases, the Corsair and French bee leisure long haul (the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean on a leisure contract), and Air Caraïbes. Air France is the legacy one with the agreement and the network, and it hires in waves with the CCA as the door, as Claire's thread describes.
For French applicants
The CCA, the B2 English, the Paris base and the crash pad for the first years, the long haul by seniority, the Africa network as the thing to bid when you can. And the agreement, which is the reason the French crew stay 30 years.
-
#2 Air France CDG, and the CDG and Orly split is exactly as Amélie says: the hub and the DOM base, two identities, one airline. The Africa network from the galley is the thing I would tell any applicant to want. The francophone Africa flights are the best cabins in the network.
-
#3 Air France, and the French service style being read as coolness by the Anglophones and correctness by the French is the thing every foreign crew member on our fleet says in their first year. The warmth is there. It is underneath.
-
#4 Marseille, Air France application in, and the Orly DOM flying being a specific identity is something I did not know. The Caribbean from Orly on the French contract. The crash pad near Roissy or the Orly one. Adding the question to the CCA course.
-
#5 KLM, and the Air France and KLM Africa networks are the two largest from Europe and the crews who love Africa at both airlines are the same type. The group shares the Africa identity. Amélie's galley is ours with French wine.
-
#6 Orly, different airline, and the Air France Orly crew are the DOM crew and the Orly airport community knows it. The Martinique and Réunion flights are French long haul in a way CDG is not. Amélie has the two bases right.
-
#7 Lyon, and the CCA as the door and the Paris crash pad for the first years is now the plan with a name and a cost. Air France remains the first dream. Thank you for the inside.
-
#8 @claire1998 the Orly crash pads are in Rungis and Orly ville and they are cheaper than the Roissy ones. Ask for Orly if the DOM flying appeals. The Caribbean on the French contract is a specific career.