Air France-KLM Group board members held a meeting last week ahead of the official unveiling of their new "Perform 2020" five-year growth plan later this week.
Among the decisions taken were the phasing out of the Group's loss-making freight subsidiary, Martinair, and the repositioning of Transavia France and Transavia Airlines as regional budget carriers.
The Air France-KLM board said a slower than expected recovery in demand had led to the decision to reduce its Amsterdam-based dedicated freighter fleet to just three aircraft by the end of 2016. Five Martinair MD-11Fs will be phased out on an accelerated basis during 2015 and 2016.
Overall, by 2016 the Group will operate five full-freighter aircraft: two Air France Cargo B777-Fs based at Paris CDG and three KLM B747-400Fs based in Amsterdam, compared with a total of 14 in 2013. The resulting scaling-down in operations effectively means Martinair will cease to exist.
The Group also approved plans to reposition Transavia and its French counterpart Transavia France, as a unified, regional budget carrier named "Transavia Europe", and beginning in 2015, Air France will transfer its entire European leisure market to Transavia Europe.
The move, however, is expected to meet strong union resistance given that a 2007 agreement with management establishing Transavia France specifically requires the airline's fleet not exceed 14 aircraft. Air France CEO Alexandre de Juniac has previously stating that the only way for a repositioned Transavia to effectively compete with European LCCs would be with a dramatically expanded fleet of at least 100 aircraft.
A full announcement of Perform 2020 is expected on September 11th.