Air France marked the exit of the last of 68 Boeing 747s that have graced its fleet over 40 years with a valedictory tour spanning Normandy to Mont Blanc and the Mediterranean -- while saying that the aviation icon could survive until 2020 at Dutch arm KLM. Replaced at the French carrier by smaller Boeing 777s and a handful of Airbus Group SE A380s, the jet still numbers more than 20 examples at KLM, where the priority has been to retire Boeing MD-11s, Alexandre De Juniac, president of parent Air France-KLM Group, said Thursday.<br/>“It’s just a question of age,” De Juniac said. “The KLM fleet is younger than Air France’s.” Not that many KLM clients are likely to complain about a model that’s exiting global fleets because of the inefficiency of its four engines rather than any lack of refinement. When Air France began selling tickets for its final flights with the 747 concerns were raised about likely demand; instead it was deluged with applications from 30,000 people eager to bid au revoir in person to a model dubbed the Queen of the Skies on its debut in 1970. KLM currently has 22 747s, seven of them all-passenger variants and another 15 so-called combis, which have a larger freight capacity, of which two will be phased out in coming weeks. The business cabins of the jetliners, which serve destinations including New York, Hong Kong and Beijing, as well as Dutch holiday spots such as Curacao, were refurbished in 2013. <br/>
sky
Air France-KLM has rolled out 765 new self-serve kiosks at Amsterdam’s Schiphol and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. The kiosks, designed by IT provider SITA, allow passengers to quickly and easily check in for flights, print bag tags or purchase additional services. SITA said it will also provide its global 24/7 service management of the kiosks over the next five years. Air France-KLM VP-distributed services IS Group Nicolas Nelson said: “The New Generation Kiosk project is a strategic project for Air France-KLM, aimed at significantly improving the customer experience in 50 airports worldwide. With these 765 state-of-the-art kiosks from SITA, we are providing a solution that will improve the self-service experience for check-in, self-tagging and baggage recovery.”<br/>