The International Air Transport Association, the governing body for the global aviation industry, has declared 2009 the second safest year ever on record following the release of new statistics.
In 2009, the worldwide accident rate equated to one mishap per 1.4 million flights. The accident rate uses hull losses for western manufactured aircraft in terms of per million ratios, resulting in an overall rating of 0.71. This represents a major improvement from the accident rate recorded in 2008 which scored a far higher 0.81.
Giovanni Bisignani, director general for the International Air Transport Association, said that the results were testament to the [...]

Air France’s bid to roll out a new range of high-speed trains has been shelved for the time being following newly introduced government legislation which many believe is a deliberate ploy to restrict the freedom of operation of the airline.
In July 2008, the plans for a high-speed rail network were revealed but Air France acknowledged at the time that due to the lack of visibility over French rail deregulation rules that the dossier was not considered urgent.
Air France, which operates under the Air France-KLM banner, had hoped to implement a new rail service for international rail passengers when the rules [...]

In light of having a worse than expected quarterly loss, the well known carrier Air France has unveiled its latest plans to cut another 1,700 jobs next year. The carrier says that these cuts are having to be made in light of the fuel hedging losses and poor cargo traffic that has been seen because of the recession. Overall, the airline will have cut 3,000 jobs in the year to March 31, 2010.
Air France, which just so happens to be Europe’s largest airline, said that it reported a net loss of about €147 million in the quarter ending September. This [...]

New reports from Air France came out yesterday (October 7) say the airline had a 3.7 percent dip in traffic for the month of September. This drop is being compared to the traffic figures from the same time last year.
The carrier said that its capacity was down 4.9 percent as well when compared to last year. This gives the airline a 1 percent boost in its load factor bringing it up to 81.9 percent. The group did go on to note that they carried some 6.2 million passengers in September. However, this is still a drop of 5.3 percent when [...]

New talks are set to start up this week as Air France is now seeking 1,500 redundancies from its staff. These formal talks are set to start this week with the worker’s council, called the Comite Central d’Entreprise, or the CCE. The airline is hoping that it will be able to reach some kind of voluntary redundancy plan agreement by October 21.
Air France, which actually just announced a net loss of €426 million for the first quarter in July, said that it had already been in talks with the council in recent months over its trading position. In a statement, [...]

Due to the current economic climate, Air France has now announced that it has pulled out of the bidding for Czech Airlines (CSA). This decision by Air France now leaves just one bidder for the national carrier.
Air France said in a statement that it had already informed the Czech Ministry of Finance of its final decision. The company went on to add, “The current economic environment has significantly impacted the airline business. Under such circumstances, Air France KLM believes that CSA might focus on developing and implementing a stand-alone recovery plan aimed at restoring its profitability.”
They also said, “In this [...]

The passenger revenue for Air France is down by 18.7 percent. This news came from an Air France report late last week. So far the airline has reported a net loss of €426 million for the first quarter of its financial year. This is a big difference from the €211 million in profits that it reported last year at the same time.
The carrier did go on to say that pretax income dropped by about 86.2 percent from €814 million to just €12 million. The airline noted that the global economy, although more stabilized than it was months ago, has [...]

New reports now show that the Air France flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, was still intact upon impact This is the information that was found out on the first report that has been released by the French accident bureau investigating the disaster that claimed the life of all 228 people that were on board.
Most experts were shocked to find out that the Airbus A330 did not break up in flight. The report also goes on to show that it was not a tail or nose down dive either. According to an investigation that was done on all [...]

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After the huge plane crash just last week, Air France has now agreed to replace sensors on all of their Airbus A3309 and A340 airplanes. The sensors that will be replaced on the planes are parts that are suspected to have anything to do with last week’s crash. One part that investigators are looking into is the role of the airspeed sensor, which is known as the pitot tubes.
An Air France pilots union, named ALTER, has told pilots to avoid flying planes until they know that their pitot tubes have been replaced. Plane manufacturers do advise airlines that they should [...]

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On board an Air France flight, a suicidal passenger tried to open the door and jump 32,000ft to her death. This could have caused catastrophe problems on board the airplane.
According to Air France, Anne Gilmore, age 47, had to be restrained by an Air France hostess when she tried to turn the handle and open the airplane door during the flight. If she succeeded at opening the door to jump out of the plane, she would have caused an “explosive depressurisation” inside the cabin of the plane. This would have exposed everyone in the cabin to temperatures of about -58C.
Later [...]