Joon was launched in 2017 as a leisure airline targetting millennials. It was marketed as a flying bar or something like that. The industry always suspected it to be a go around the existing labour contracts. The quirk of being Joon was summarised in this video, given it was many things, but also an airline.
Joon had an ambitious expansion plan of adding 28 aircraft to its fleet by 2020 including A350 aircraft as well. As of now, Joon has a fleet of 11 A320 family aircraft and 4 A340-300 aircraft serving 22 destinations with some being summer destinations only.
Joon destinations Source: Air France
From cosy seats in economy to T-shirt and sneakers toting flight cabin crew, Joon had it all yuppy. Mumbai was one of the first international destinations of Joon. Air France transferred their A340s to Joon along with the destinations that it served, so Mumbai was passed on to Joon in Summer of 2018.
Since the day, the new CEO of Air France-KLM, Ben Smith took charge there was news that Joon’s existence is uncertain. Like many of us, he was not fond of Joon. It was rumoured in November 2018 and confirmed in January 2019 that Joon would be finally going away. But when? We have the answer now.
According to Routes Online, Joon will transfer all their flights to mainline Air France by June 28, 2019. The majority of the flights will be moved on June 26, 2019. That means, finally, we will be seeing mainline Air France service back on the Mumbai – Paris route from June 27, 2019. The crew and aircraft will be absorbed into Air France. The plane remains the same, just the service and branding will change.
Joon Mumbai-Paris June 26, 2019
Air France Mumbai-Paris June 27, 2019
Since the new CEO came in, Air France-KLM has been focussing on simplifying operations, synergy, focusing on profitability and growth. Air France, in particular, will undergo some significant transformation as it still doesn’t offer lie-flat seats on all widebody aircraft.
The group will retire half of A380 fleet, all Airbus A340 and Boeing 747s by 2021. KLM currently operates 11 Boeing 747s including 6 Boeing 747-400M (Combi), which they will retire by 2021. Air France operates a single A340-300 presently and will get three more from Joon taking the total to 4 A340s. All A340s will be retired by 2020. So expect a service change on Mumbai-Paris route by this year-end or early next year. Will they shift back to a Boeing 777-200ER service or add a Boeing 787-9 service which technically is their A340 replacement? We don’t know yet.
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