AF's Rot: The Forgotten Roots
AF's problem is that it is in a no man's land in terms of market segment.
It neither fits in with a low-cost carrier nor does it offer the opulence of its Gulf competitors.
It will not survive as AF missed its chance when Blanc was running the show.
Blanc foresaw the mess and wanted IT (Air Inter) to become a LCC (Low-Cost Carrier).
With hindsight, it was a big mistake to merge AF and IT...and guess who were IT's advisers?
McKinsey!
McKinsey, remember, destroyed SR (Swissair).
When gangster Spinetta came along, he destroyed IJ (Air Libérté) and IW (AOM).
He also bears the guilt for 3 fatal crashes (1992, 2000, 2009).
When he was in power, his only motto was "La paix sociale à tout prix" which also meant that safety was being compromised...yes because those did not make the grade were being steamrolled onto the flightdeck despite having failed their proficiency tests.
I suspect that SkyTeam will be broken up and a new alliance being formed as AF falls into foreign ownership and this time it will be EK (Emirates).