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Air France-KLM expects long-haul passenger traffic to Paris to keep falling during the last quarter of the year as fears of terror attacks keep tourists away. The number of long-haul passengers flown to and from France by Air France-KLM will likely decline between 5% and 10% in Q4, CE Jean-Marc Janaillac said Tuesday. The number of passengers to France, particularly from the US, Japan, China and South Korea, had fallen by 14% in July and August. France’s tourism industry has been severely hit since late 2015 as travellers stayed away following terror attacks that have killed more than 200 people since November. Overall, Air France-KLM has managed to keep raising the number of passengers during the summer, thanks to the development of its budget airline, Transavia, and demand for other destinations. <br/>

Air France-KLM Group said it’s examining a range of options for entering the low-cost, long-haul travel market in a move that would parallel developments at Lufthansa. The airline has been working on plans for the venture for more than a year as it seeks to respond to competition from carriers including Norwegian Air Shuttle, French Blue and more traditional foes such as Lufthansa, CE Jean-Marc Janaillac said. Expanding into the no-frills long-haul market would mark a departure for Air France-KLM, which has so far focused efforts to develop a lower-cost model on short-range European routes. Janaillac said Tuesday the company can no longer ignore the emerging threat from a range of contenders. Janaillac didn’t say which markets the new business might serve and what aircraft it would fly. <br/>

Air France will begin operations with new Boeing 787-9s Jan 9, 2017, with a service from Paris Charles De Gaulle to the Egyptian capital of Cairo, the airline announced Sept 20. The new aircraft will operate in a 3-class configuration, with 30 business, 21 premium economy and 225 economy seats. They will have the new standard Air France cabins, notably with wider premium economy seats. For the past 2 years, Air France has been seeking to differentiate itself among competitors by offering upgrades in cabin furnishings and on board service. This winter, 26 Air France Boeing 777s flying long-haul routes will be equipped with the new cabins; by August 2017, that number will rise to 44. New cabins for its Airbus A330 fleet are scheduled to be rolled out from winter 2017. <br/>

A pilot of a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane mistakenly pressed a hijack warning button as it approached Manila's airport Tuesday, causing airport officials to mobilise commando forces and isolate the jet after it landed, Philippine officials said. Flight SV872 from Jiddah made the distress call about 20 miles from the airport. Airport authorities asked for a verification of the emergency message and one of the pilots confirmed the distress call verbally with the airport tower, aviation security chief Mao Aplasca said. He said the pilot did not immediately say the emergency call was a mistake. The pilot did not tell the control tower that the button had been pushed accidentally until the plane was parked, Aplasca said. Despite the assurance, airport authorities continued to treat the incident as a crisis. <br/>

Pilots and cabin crew at Alitalia are planning to strike for 24 hours Sept 22, triggering flight cancellations. Sept 20, Alitalia said it was implementing “special measures” during the walkout. “The trade unions ANPAC, ANPAV and USB, representing some of the Alitalia pilots and flight attendants, have confirmed a 24-hour strike Sept 22, despite cancellation of industrial action by the national unions FILT-CGIL, FIT-CISL, UIL Trasporti and UGL. As a consequence, Alitalia was forced to cancel many flights scheduled Sept 22,” Alitalia said. The strike was originally scheduled for Sept 6, but was deferred following the recent earthquake in Italy. Alitalia has rebooked passengers, brought in extra staff at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate and set up special call centre numbers in a bid to minimise disruption. <br/>

As CE at General Motors in Argentina, Isela Costantini cut costs and raised revenue at one of the most admired companies in the country. Last year, she quit and took a very different job at the urging of Argentine president Mauricio Macri: running the country’s bloated state-run airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas. Nine months later, Costantini is finding it tough to overhaul the carrier. With 12,000 workers, 6 powerful unions and a deeply ingrained bureaucratic culture, the 65-year-old airline is more like a govt ministry than a cost-conscious company, she said. Aerolíneas was on track to lose US$1b this year, after dropping $1m to $2m a day for much of the past decade. The CE said the airline lacked the organisational trappings of a normal business, such as budgets, performance and sales targets. <br/>