Originally Posted by San Gottardo

That was the intention - not to be silly, that was the unintended result. But to make people think of a simple, kangaroo-like, hop to go from one place to another. "Et hop" in French is an expression that signifies something like a little magical trick where within a second and seemingly very easily something thought of being difficult is changed: "et hop" a rabbit appears out of the hat, "et hop" you simply go from Rennes to Strasbourg. It was also chosen because it had an energetic, dynamic sound to it. The HOP name and concept is a product of its time. This was all designed at a time when a couple of old fart bureaucrats at the AF headquarters and some hillbillies in the "HQ" of the three commuter carriers of the AF group sitting in the equivalent of Flint MI, Billings MT and Annapolis MD realized that their cake was eaten by U2 and Ryanair and convinced themselves that the best way forward was for them to appear hip, young, fresh, simple, cheap. And so they kept their highly heterogeneous fleet of old planes, their convoluted org structure and fragmented footprint, their overpaid staff, the operating model with low asset utilisation, spent money on a branding agency, and put "HOP!" on the fuselage of their planes.

What is interesting is to observe how this was the beginning of Air France's creative period: they were very pleased with the result of HOP, because the negative reaction from their old-sytle "legacy" clientele was one of horror, which for the managers by deduction meant that they must be appealing to the younger, hipper crowd - it was a bit like the fat and ugly 50 year old thinks that he is a star with hot mannequins only because his mother told him she doesn't like his new look of tight jeans and big sun glasses. They were so successful that the number of people paying fares high enough to actually make the company profitable went down constantly. Growing losses weren't a problem, other than the Dutch friends that were part of the same AFKL group there wasn't really anyone else in the group actually making money. And the Dutch were far away, on a different planet, and not networking in the same circles of French public servants and local grandes - in other words, irrelevant.

And because they creators of the HOP concept became convinced that they were really good at coming up with brands that are hip, young, fresh, simple and cheap they thought they'd go for another strike of genius. But this time, not only would the new brand be all of those things, no no. "HOP" was a word that whilst being silly was still pronounceable. Now they decided that they'd find a brand which was not only silly, it also should have a word that wouldn't mean anything and left everybody wondering how to pronounce it. And whilst HOP staff were basically nothing else than the old unmotivated and overpaid Regional/Airlinair/Britair staff with HOP labels stuck on their uniforms, the new concept took the principle of silliness much further. FAs had to wear white sneakers, just to make sure shoes would look dirty much quicker. And that was the birth of JOON.

Just like a painter or a composer Air France also went through various phases, and those creative years of the AFKL group were a real break with the past. The company had spent most of the 2000s coming up with contradicting rules and inefficient procedures in customer service, on the ground and on board that were brought upon customers by arrogant and self-centered staff who went through months of initiation by elder colleagues and trade unions to adapt that unique mix of claiming privileges, hating customers and behaving like state employees. Large departments had been founded to perfectionate the uniqueness of AF. One for instance was responsible for the cabin product, spending months designing seats that had to be less comfortable than the chairs in the waiting room of a public hospital and tables that should avoid any possibility of customers putting at the same time a laptop and a cup of coffee on them, to then move on to come up with NEV and explaining to people that it's natural for mankind to sleep on a slope. Another sub-committee was responsible for refining policies and mechanisms to ensure upgrades would never go to loyal customers, whilst at the same time enlarging the circle of people allowed to sit in First Class with a discounted Eco ticket ("On se connait, tu te rappelles de notre rencontre il y a très longtemps, j'suis Agathe, la copine de Jean-Louis, tu sais celui qui a chanté au mariage de la maraine du neveu de ta belle-soeur il y a 12 ans, je sais plus comm'elle s'appelle, en tout cas j'espère que tu aimes les chocolats, je me suis levée super tôt ce matin pour passer au Super U juste pour te faire une surprise à laquelle tu ne t'attendais pas, donc c'est OK si je prends la fenêtre là-bas? Non, tu sais, j'suis vraiment discrète, j'veux vraiment pas déranger, et il y a déjà un duvet et un pyjama sur le siège donc je sais pas si la place est déjà prise, mais de tout'manière j'ai pris mon propre coussin avec moi, j'veux pas déranger, mais j'm'suis dit avec le jetlag entre Metz et Johannesburg, c'est p't'être mieux. Oh, merci, c'est chouette"). Unions were handed the management of HR training courses where female staff members were coached on how to cry on television and be scandalised about having to work an inhumane 26 hours a week only to get a full salary, while male staff were trained to recognize what a shirt is and how to lynch executives. Top management developed a perfection in recruiting public sector servants with lyrical talent to put into a favourable light the Billions of losses the company was accumulating. One can be almost nostalgic of those years, where people stranded by strikes or weather would see the customer service desk shut in front of them because office hours were over; the years of NEO and Tempo Challenge; of prison food in white boxes being acclaimed for their gourmet quality available only to Business Class passengers paying 1,500 EUR one-way between Paris and Milan; the years where online check-in was an AF-logoed version of the national lottery, and you spent hours on un-air conditioned buses to board a 450 seater parked on the tarmac. And who doesn't remember those moments where you lost your life because the roof of a CDG terminal would break down on you, or the attractiveness of a frequent flyer program where it took 587,000 flights to get a free ticket on the one flight in the network that was opened up for award redemption, the 6.05am departure from Clermont-Ferrand to Lyon (today you need about 3 million!).

Let's see what the next phase brings. JOON is over, HOP will go vintage and carry the Air France name, and there are first signs of a few individuals who believe that the future lies in completely new and innovative ideas that have never been seen elsewhere in the airline industry, such as lie-flat seats on all long haul planes, WiFi on board, and staff that put their own interests behind those of paying customers.