Wealthy American tourists who spend on fashion brands and hotels in Paris can boost Air France-KLM’s recovery from a “challenging” year, the airline group’s CE has said. Ben Smith said Air France had seen “amazing” demand from leisure travellers in its business and first-class seats, and the French airline has responded by shifting its business model to focus on the premium end of the market. “It’s unbelievable what Americans are paying to come over here, if you look at what it costs to stay down the street at the [five-star] Bristol Hotel,” Smith told the Financial Times in an interview at the airline group’s Paris offices. The biggest suite at the Bristol Hotel can cost as much as $50,000 a night, with more economic options starting at $2,000 a night. Smith cited “crazy” activity during Paris Fashion Week, which opened on Monday. Air France is charging about $24,000 for a return first-class ticket between New York and Paris in April and is launching an updated first-class cabin this month. The pivot to the higher end of the market came as the airline group, which owns Air France, Dutch carrier KLM and a minority stake in Scandinavian airline SAS, reported a sharp fall in full-year profits on Thursday. Net profit halved year on year to E489m, which Smith put down to factors including the Olympics putting off some travellers from visiting the French capital, as well as higher costs caused by operational problems at KLM. Revenue rose 5% to E31.5b. Still, shares rose almost 33% on Thursday after the results comfortably beat analyst expectations. Smith said 2024 was “a year shaped by both operational and external challenges”.<br/>