Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
The *plane* does a W pattern: ZRH-JFK-GVA-JFK-ZRH. that means that every time the plane lands in Geneva from New York, it goes back to New York, and then from there to Zürich. Suisse has timed their flights in such a way as that they have several planes on the ground at JFK at the same time, so they can swap them between Zürich and Geneva.
The *crew* deadheads between GVA and ZRH. One crew starts in Zürich, and ends in Geneva, from where it then deadheads back to Zürich. Another crew deadheads from Zürich to Geneva, and then operate Geneva to New York to Zürich.
Exactly: were AF to launch longhaul from Nice it would certainly be to a destination they already serve, so this would likely be the approach.
The point that NCE-LAX is a long flight is valid, however. It could be solved by overnighting the crew in NCE in the outbound, but that adds significant cost.
A lot if this thread has focused on LAX, but it also strikes me AF could take over summer JFK services from DL. They could always do a 350 or 787, but I think they’d sell more P seats on this route than IAD or DXB.