Air France, Aeroflot Set New Cooperation Agreement

On March 23, Vitali Saveliev, chief executive officer of Aeroflot, and Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, chief executive officer of Air France-KLM, signed a new cooperation agreement in the presence of Igor Levitin, minister for transport of the Russian Federation and Dominique Bussereau, French secretary of state for transport.

This agreement, which will enter into effect on March 28, will enable Aeroflot and Air France, SkyTeam alliance partners, to offer their customers code-shared flights beyond their respective hubs at Moscow-Sheremetyevo and Paris-Charles de Gaulle, therefore taking benefits of the provisions of the agreement concluded between the Russian and French authorities in 2005.

Air France and Aeroflot will commercialize code-share flights to six destinations in Russia, operated by Aeroflot beyond Moscow to Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg et Nizhnevartovsk; and four destinations in France and Europe, operated by Air France beyond Paris to Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille and Lisbon.

The signing of this new agreement, which expands the 2002 code-share agreement between Aeroflot and Air France covering services between Paris and Moscow, further strengthens the cooperation between the two airlines and allows for a significant increase of the number of destinations served on a code-share basis by the two airlines.

For summer 2010, Aeroflot and Air France will be selling eight daily round trips operated on a code-share basis between Paris and Moscow. The two carriers offer a specific seat block on each aircraft.