JOUY31

From the Air France French travel agent portal

Effective December 9th, the CDG-SXB route will no longer be operated with CR7 aircraft, but by TGV Est. Here are the (loosely translated) product specifications:

• Passengers will be managed by Air France staff in Strasbourg
• 4 trains per day
• Can only be sold in combination with a long-haul (COI included) or medium-haul flight
• Cannot be sold in combination with a short-haul (domestic) flight
• Two-class product: 1st class for passengers travelling in the La Premiere, Affaires and (I would guess Premium Eco/Affaires) cabins, 2nd class for passengers travelling in the Voyageur cabin (and I would guess Premium Voyageur as well)
• HLE : 15 minutes
• MCT : 1 hour
• No checked baggage
• No catering provided at the seat

Winter 2012 schedule:
• CDG-SXB
07:28 - 09:59
10:20 - 12:44
12:43 - 15:14
18:28 - 20:59
• SXB-CDG
06:01 - 08:32
09:46 - 12:17
12:16 - 14:42
19:01 - 21:32 (6 days a week only)

As the negociations with SNCF are not completed yet, the "flights" have not been loaded into the various GDS yet, just as the list of ancillary services has not been finalized.

orbitmic

Last flight ex-CDG at 18.28 with 1hr MCT is not very good compared to the current last flight (20.50 with shorter MCT). Outbound, pax will be able to meet the same connections at CDG, but this time leaving at 6.01 from the station instead of 7.50 from the airport.

All in all, I'd say that a mix (e.g. maintaining plane on first and last connections) would have been better as right now AF will become yet a little bit less competitive ex-Strasbourg (although of course, at least, our friend chrissxb will now stop enjoying comprehensive tours of the CDG road network from 2G

nicolas75

Imagine it used to be - by far - the most profitable domestic destination for AF, and is now the bigger loss making one.

Richelieu

It used to be convenient to fly it, too, even after the TGV semi-high-speed line opening.

Richelieu

Limited impact expected from the strike following this latest genius development. Not that it affected me that much, mind you...

KQ321

Interestingly, during the discussion with Alexandre de Juniac at the CDG DO, he mentioned 2.5hrs as a cut-off point below which airlines could not compete with high-speed rail. The journey time from Strasbourg to CDG by TGV Est is currently 2h31 (and slightly quicker for some of the trains in the new timetable). They don't seem to be significantly speeding up the railway line when it replaces AF flights, but SNCF are adding a 4th daily direct train (currently there only seem to be 3).

Although you could debate the exact journey time at which air becomes better than rail (personally, I think it varies whether you're looking at a point-to-point journey (in which case, the city-centre-to-city-centre nature of rail justifies a longer time on the train), or a connecting journey (in which the increased MCT for a rail-to-flight connection becomes an issue)), I can still very much see the logic of AF partnering with SNCF (or others) for very short journeys (where high speed rail is a viable alternative) and focussing its efforts instead on competing effectively in medium or long-haul travel (where air is often the only sensible option).

Slightly OT, but I think the most remarkable thing about this announcement is that SNCF already seem to know what their 2012/13 rail timetable is going to be... (Last year, it was only announced in mid-October...)

Nico40

And it shall be cut by 30 minutes by mid-2016 with the extension of the high speed line up to Strasbourg. So nothing contradictory, just an anticipation...

Nico.

KQ321

Interesting to know - I wasn't aware of that detail.

I didn't mean to imply that a journey time of 1 minute above 2h30 was a contradiction! Rather the opposite - as the CDG-Strasbourg journey time is already 2.5hrs (give or take a minute...) changing the AF operation to SNCF is consistent with de Juniac's statement...

Richelieu

Indeed, the situation will be clearer now. If you're looking to connect to a long-haul or short-haul destination, you'll always have a land leg and you'll have to deal with a large airport, whether you fly AF from CDG or LH from FRA/STR or LX from BSL. So the comparison won't be blurred by the increased convenience of using SXB airport.

For a short haul (commuting between Paris and Strasbourg), few thing will change at this time: SXB-ORY is still operated, I guess for pax connecting on domestic flights.