Newsmaker: New Air France U.S. Head Focuses On Integration

It's been a whirlwind couple of months for Christine Ourmières, who crossed the pond from the United Kingdom to New York City to head Air France-KLM's U.S. division as vice president and general manager, effective July 1.

Since replacing Jean-Claude Cros, who has moved to Paris to assume the title of deputy executive vice president of international and the Netherlands, Ourmières took over responsibility for Air France-KLM's largest division outside of its home markets, worked closely with Delta Air Lines to integrate the carriers in an antitrust-immune joint venture, and is gearing up for a number of new U.S. service offerings, including the launch of the Airbus 380 and a new premium economy cabin this fall.

After the official May 20 launch of the Delta-Air France-KLM joint venture, a lot has been done to integrate several airline brands into one joint venture—particularly on the corporate side, Ourmières said. She said Air France-KLM already has shifted to Delta's Prism system for airline contract performance measurement, moved to Delta's U.S. travel agency system, and converted a number of single-carrier corporate contracts to joint venture deals.

"We decided to create one sales team in the U.S., under the leadership of Delta. To serve the needs of our customers, we wanted to have joint contracts as soon as possible," Ourmières said. "We are in the process of joint contacting for trade and corporate. It's amazing how many changes have already been done, not only on tools, but also in training and investment—and it's not just Air France and Delta. At the same time, Delta and Northwest merged, so I am amazed at the capacity of these people to understand, learn and embrace change."

Ourmières said that Air France-KLM and Delta are shifting corporate customers to joint contracts "at the speed of the renewal of the contracts. The idea is to convert as much as possible in the first year, and we are doing our utmost to convert as many contacts as possible."

Ourmières said some Delta and Air France-KLM systems already have been integrated. "For travel agencies and for corporate customers, we moved to Delta systems in the U.S., and Delta moved to the Air France-KLM platform in Europe."

Ourmières sees the opportunity for further systems integration, and has completed some conversions, but said the immediate focus on both sides of the Atlantic has been joining teams that previously served their own brand to serve the joint venture. "IT is something that is crucial for us, but today we're working more on changing teams," Ourmières said. "You have Dutch and French people coming from the two pricing teams now based in Atlanta and the same in Europe, with people from Delta now placed in the joint venture team."

Ourmières added: "I'm a very pragmatic person. If we as a joint venture had the same IT, distribution and inventory management systems, it would be much simpler, but today we are different. We're coming from a different market with different histories, and at the same time Delta and Northwest are coming together, and the new Air France-KLM has come a long way on harmonizing that platform. We're still working on different systems. I'm not saying that's the way forward, but we're just finding a way to work together."

Air France-KLM also is gearing up for the November launch of Airbus A380 service on the New York JFK-Paris Charles de Gaulle route and the launch of Air France's new premium economy class, Premium Voyageur, in late October.

Most recently Air France-KLM general manager for the United Kingdom and Ireland, Ourmières has held a number of executive positions in information systems, sales, marketing and distribution since joining the carrier in 1988 to work in the maintenance department. Ourmières now is responsible for all U.S. operations, including sales, distribution, finance, marketing and airport operations, among others.