From the articles in Air Journal and La Tribune a couple of things aren't clear to me yet:
- "HOP will no longer fly to Orly" - I presume that means that the AF mainline routes (NCE, MRS, MPL, TLS, BOD, BIQ, etc) will still operate from ORY?
- Will there be HOP routes that will be switched over to AF mainline only to preserve the link to Paris? Pau, Perpignan maybe? I presume that some routes may completely lose their connection to Paris. Castres, Brive...
- So Lyon will be the new intra-regions transfer point, and CDG the transfer point for everything else. Will that also mean moving the DOMTOM flights from ORY to CDG? Maybe not necessary as the few routes that may be lost (the Castres-type routes) didn't provide that much feed anyway, and the other ones (MRS; TLS, BOD, etc) plus the local Paris O&D is enough to keep the DOMTOM flights at ORY
- Will LYS actually be more of an intra-regons hub than today? So if Castres or Brive are cut from Paris, wil lthey be connected to Lyon instead? One of the articles mentioned that for some destinations, going to Paris means changing planes at LYS - I find that hard to believe. With the exception of cities that are super close to paris (the likes of LIL) if there is any air connection, it would be to Paris
- And what about the intra-region traffic flows that will be absorbed by Transavia? Surely they won't be having as dense a schedule - running three daily flights from Lille to Nantes may work when you deploy an ERJ-145 with few seats, but not with Transavia's 150+ seat 737s. So less routes than today, and thus more hubbing in LYS?