27 September, 2017

Looking beyond the hype of Joon!

With much fanfare and attention Air France launches its sister airline on social media this week,  months are we broke the story.  Joon, the newest addition to the Air France family has been born!



Joon is aimed at being an airline for the millennials, which instantly puts me out of the target audience and market and therefore, I can only assume they don't want me or my generation spending our disposable incomes with them. Targeting a specific demographic may have its advantages, but excluding all others doesn't sound like a recipe for success.  However, I'll carry on and delve deeper beyond the 'Joon' hype - sorry I mean promotional literature, read on -




Joon is, Air France tells us way more than an airline, it is apparently a fashion brand, a rooftop bar, an entertainment channel, a personal assistant and an airline.

Air France has hired 140 'Joon' flight attendants - which did the Air France training programme - and already qualified pilots from Air France to provide a new level of travel experience to six destinations departing from Paris-CDG by Airbus A320 / A321 and Airbus A340 / A350. 

The airline will commence on 1st December 2017 in Europe from €39 including tax:

Barcelona1 (Spain): 51 weekly flights
Berlin1 (Germany): 37 weekly flights
Lisbon1 (Portugal): 28 weekly flights
Porto1 (Portugal): 3 weekly flights
Starting in summer 2018 in Brazil and the Seychelles:

Fortaleza2 (Brazil) starting at €249 including tax: 2 weekly flights
Mahé2 (Seychelles) starting at €299 including tax: 3 weekly flights



Apart from issuing press releases that are so difficult to read, we almost didn't bother, Air France also tell us that Joon is a rooftop bar -  "Joon will delight its customers’ taste buds with around sixty tasty treats, 20% of which are organic, sold on board by the crew. Enjoy a cold drink, a few appetizers, a high-energy fruit juice, fill up with vitamins or share a snack on board a flight in Europe."  So, in other words, it's not a rooftop bar at all, just a flight that sells booze. 

Joon is an entertainment channel, yes they are saying that however scrats beyond the hideous blue hype and you find Air France is not launching a tv station to rival MTV or VH1, but thanks to outside sources they will have good quality in-flight entertainment. Stuff that you'll be able to stream to your own smartphone, tablet or laptop. Once on board, they will be able to connect directly to the Joon login portal and choose from a wide range of TV series, animated series, Web TV and kids’ programmes.  Plus, the aircraft seats also feature USB ports to charge up your personal device during the flight. 

The 'Joon is a personal assistant' bit is a little more opaque in its meaning, no they don't employ someone to arrange your hotel, portage, dry cleaning, theatre tickets, sightseeing explorations or any such thing that a real personal assistant might do for you. Nope, all they've done is utilise arrangement that Air France has with a couple of other suppliers.  Like valet parking and overpriced hotel suppliers and also AirB&B, all at an extra cost, all that you can book direct and all really nothing to do with the airline - so less personal assistant and more a directory or add ons!

Joon is a fashion designer.... well, ok, they might have a little tiny something there,  they have a uniform, supposedly it is a chic sportswear look,  indeed the hype indicates the uniform of Joon's 140 flight attendants reflects the spirit of the company. The uniform is made up of classic and modern garments, with slimline trousers, sneakers, redesigned sailor stripes and a sleeveless quilted jacket.  It sounds good and we're all for recycling so we're pleased to read that the uniforms have been designed with recycled fabrics made from plastic bottles. Of course, they got someone outside the airline to design it, so Joon isn't really the fashion designer itself, nope, but then again the suit you bought from Armani wasn't designed by him, so we'll let that one go.  I'm not sure how those uniforms made of plastic bottles will survive in a fire or whilst cruising at 35,000 feet, some say its revolutionary, I'm rather more of the opinion that the uniforms are at best very casual and at worse scruffy.
 

They plan to offer virtual reality headsets to business class passengers on long-haul as well as working with  Paper Plane which is like a chip-in type arrangement where friends and family can pay for your trip - if they don't fancy actually giving you the money for it and saving the commission! 


Joon will fly under the Air France code, all of its support services, both ground and in the air are by Air France, indeed the Joon flights will replace existing Air France flights.  There will be 28 Air France aircraft moved to the Joon fleet (by 2020).

After all the hype, Joon is not a rooftop bar, it is not a pa, it's not a tv channel, it is not gonna save the world, It IS just an airline off-shoot from Air France, a mix between a low-cost airline in economy and a full-service airline in business class.  

It is just an airline targeted to Millenials (launched by some rather un-millennial looking folk) which makes me think, it's not an airline for me, for my friends or indeed anyone over thirty (which is the vast majority of air travellers)  Joon is an airline for the 'youth' market,  but like as any parent will tell you, the 'youth' soon grow up, and much more rapidly than you anticipated.

Good luck Joon.......






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