It seems that the situation has reversed w.r.t. what it was until around 1 year ago at least. Now in many places in Europe, AF publishes only 1 O fare which is way more expensive than KL fares. It's quite sad.

Example GVA-BER:

O0S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 526.00(USD) B
O1S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 564.00(USD) B
O2S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 606.00(USD) B
O3S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 653.00(USD) B
O4S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 702.00(USD) B
OYS02BNA AF O Round-Trip 709.00(USD) B

MIL-LON:
O0S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 489.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O1S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 526.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O0S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 527.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O2S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 566.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O1S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 567.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O2S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 611.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O3S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 611.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O3S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 659.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O4S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 659.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
OYS02BNA AF O Round-Trip 665.00(USD) B V / 12M
O4S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 713.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
Z0S32BNA KL Z Round-Trip 717.00(USD) B V / 12M 03
OYS02BNA AF O Round-Trip 758.00(USD) B V / 12M

MAD-ATH:
O0S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 505.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O1S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 541.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O2S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 579.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
O3S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 622.00(USD) B V / 12M 07
OYS02BNA AF O Round-Trip 655.00(USD) B V / 12M
O4S62BNA KL O Round-Trip 669.00(USD) B V / 12M 07

 

Fares have been going up for a while. I feel like AF and KL are taking steps up in turn. The time of cheap C fares within Europe (I remember ~400 euro roundtrip tickets via CDG within europe) are long gone

 

The things that shock me is that the reasonable ones are still there, but with KL only. I hate that, since to me the idea of connecting to AMS and being subject to the cancellation russian roulette of KL feels like a nightmare.

 

As Ben (Smith) highlighted in our Investor Day presentations, AF is trying to move away from connection traffic in order to take advantage of higher yielding local traffic. I don't have any specific insight into connecting EU O fares, but based on the O&Ds highlighted it would seem in line with this goal.

 

Makes sense - and even Z fares had the same treatments.
For what I hear from Ben Smith it's not a complete move away from connection traffic but just a rebalance of further 2-3% points ( https://www.yuca.tv/en/air-france-klm/investor-day-2023 minute 18:51 ). This already changed from 2019-2023. I'm sure this will change again after the covid effects on travel are fully gone and we'll go back on even tougher competition.

 

I am not sure what you mean by that. If you refer to the downsizing of business travel, I am not sure that we are ever going to go back towards pre-covid days, as long-term trends (outside covid proper) seem to be towards a (relative) decrease of business travel anyway.