Air France reabsorbs subsidiary Joon: an also-ran, failed experiment

From the start, Air France's subsidiary airline Joon was ill-conceived and half-hearted. The concept was originally intended as a long haul response to competition from Gulf airlines and announced by Air France-KLM's previous CEO in 2016 as part of his 'Trust Together' strategic project. Joon launched in Dec-2017, aimed at millennials and with the strapline 'also an airline'.

It always had compromise written right through it, particularly in its cost base, network focus, size and branding. From the outset, Air France did not attempt to make Joon a low cost airline, merely lower cost. Using the term (and concept of) low cost was offensive to Air France's unions, so much time and money that could have been used fighting external competition was wasted pandering to internal idiosyncrasies.

The long haul focus was diluted early on, so that Joon launched initially only on short/medium haul and that remains the majority of its network. It has only 16 aircraft (12 narrowbodies, four widebodies) and although its name, crew and onboard environment are new, its pilots, marketing and support functions are all provided by Air France.

The Jan-2019 announcement that Air France has "decided to launch a project studying the future of the Joon brand and the integration of Joon employees and aircraft into Air France" was tacked onto the end of a press release about a cabin crew pay agreement. Even Joon's demise seems half-hearted.