styling notebook

Air France reinvents flying pleasure

Contents A history of luxury in French style / page 3 The new ground facilities / page 11 The new l'Espace Premire / page 17 The new l'Espace Affaires / page 25
Photos: Philippe Costes, Air France cabin environment Frdric de Gasquet, Terminal 2E Paris-CDG Luc Boegly, Air France lounges Air France - Press Office - www.airfrance.com/corporate - Tel.: +33 (0)1 41 56 56 00

Starting this Autumn, Europes leading airline will be inviting some of the 42 million passengers it carries each year to fly its long-haul aircraft for a unique and thrilling taste of the future. As the long-awaited response to the many-facetted expectations of its customers and the outcome of a painstaking exploration of questions of space, comfort, materials and sensory perceptions, the newlyenhanced pleasure of travelling on board Air France planes reflects a world of luxury already strongly marked on the ground. Like a grand hotel that delivers a highly sophisticated mix of lounging refinement and the audacious line of the French slant in the design department, the elegantly exclusive lounges recently inaugurated at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airports gleaming new Terminal 2E provide a foretaste of the new lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires environments. Aboard the aircraft, seats transform into beds and individual space has been expanded, while inflight services have been propelled to new heights. Air Frances latest vision of travelling pleasure is quite naturally steeped in the constantly regenerated focus on hospitality that has forged the companys inimitable style over the past seven decades. As a flying showcase for contemporary French luxury, this new art of travelling lifts the name of Air France to the highest pinnacle of excellence.

First luxury destinations with that special French slant

From the dream of air travel to the reality of industrial design

A new world of travel pleasure

Air France

A history of luxury in French style

1950s

Air France launched its first non-stop long-haul services operating the now legendary Lockheed Super Constellation
1957 1952

1969

2002

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First luxury destinations with that special French slant

When Air France launched its first non-stop long-haul services in the 1950s operating the now legendary Lockheed Super Constellation, air travel was reserved for a select band of wealthy travellers with a pronounced taste for modernity. Cresting Italys pre-war Futurist wave, which gave birth to the streamlined roadsters of legend, speed became one of the crowning virtues of contemporary western society. People in a hurry could now hop from continent to continent on a wing and a smile and the jet-set was born. Air travel was the new status symbol. The rudimentary amenities aboard the first piston-engined airliners were soon replaced by more carefully designed and refined cabin interiors, with a focus on comfortable seating, attractive fabric colours, good food and drink. Flag-carriers saw themselves as ambassadors for their home countries and as aircraft gradually took over from the ocean-going liners, they were to become the flying showcases for their national lifestyle.

1952. After working for more than a

decade with Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand (1903-2001) designed a Unit dHabitation in Brazzaville in what was then French Equatorial Africa. The project, carried out jointly with Jean Prouv and designed to improve the day-to-day environment of Air France personnel, has featured in several Perriand retrospectives.

1957.

Air France commissioned Charlotte Perriand to design its offices in Tokyo and London, as well as the Rue Scribe offices in Paris, destined to establish the companys brand identity for the general public.

< Air France

A history of luxury in French style

Right from the outset, Air France consistently sought to have its aircraft express Frances douceur de vivre, which was the envy of the world. The company image was also projected in its ticket offices and it was one of the all-time greats of contemporary French design, the late Charlotte Perriand, who conceived some of Air Frances early groundbreaking architectural and decorative forays, like the Rue Scribe ticket office in Paris.

From the dream of air travel to the reality of industrial design

After leaving the Paris studios of Raymond Loewy, and working under his own name from 1958, Pierre-Gautier Delaye was commissioned by Air France to design the interiors and furnishings of its 70 ticket offices. Also in 1969, Air France presented PierreGautier Delaye with the ambitious project of designing the seating and the textile colour scheme for the three cabin classes and bar furniture and fittings of its new Boeing 747 jumbo jets.

1969.

For many people, air travel seemed an unattainable luxury. The stars of stage and screen photographed boarding aircraft vicariously communicated some of the thrill. On Sundays, whole families crowded onto the observation platform at Orly to watch the planes arrive and depart. As an absolute symbol of modernity and of a future foretold at every fictional level, the aircraft radically changed the concept of travel and the idea of transport. It peaked with Concorde, which pulverized every speed record to date. And who else but industrial design supremo Raymond Loewy, the selfproclaimed industrial esthetician, could have woven together all these strands of new travel concepts? It was Loewy who was commissioned by Air France to design the passenger cabin of the first Concorde, and he left his mark on every detail, right down to the meal trays that collectors would kill for today, and which have often directly inspired a generation of younger designers. Another type of aircraft was also to revolutionize air travel in the shape of Boeings impressive double-deck jumbo-jet, the B747. Air France commissioned Pierre-Gautier Delaye to design the interior of its own B747 fleet. After working with Loewy as head of the Interior Design section of the CEI agency in Paris between 1951 and 1958, Delaye went solo from the late 1950s, forming a special professional relationship with Air France.

1976. Air France chose Raymond Loewy to

fit out its first Concorde. The man who invented industrial design created the interior cabin architecture as well as its now-legendary and eminently collectible modernist meal-tray. Complemented by Christofle flatware, the tray long sustained the French Concordes image and reputation for excellence.

In 1969, Delaye began working on ground installations for Air France, designing the interior layout and furnishings of Air France ticket offices worldwide. In 1970, the city of New York even presented Air France with the award for the finest faade on Fifth Avenue! At that time, Delayes designs for the cabins of Air Frances B747s were at an advanced stage. He created not only the fabrics and seats, but also the upper-deck bar furniture, ordering exclusive fabrics from the textile designer, Sheila Hicks. It came as no surprise, therefore, that Delaye was asked by Air France to upgrade Concordes dcor in 1988. Five years later, the Company chose Andre Putman, the driving force behind the renaissance in French taste, to effect a complete makeover of its Concorde fleet. In 2000, a new cabin interior was chosen for all Air Frances aircraft, concentrating on the colours and a new graphic approach, along with the design of Tempo tableware by the French collective, Radi Designers. The results of this programme are still in place today throughout the entire Air France fleet.

1988. Over two decades after the first

Air France Concorde went into service, the company invited Pierre-Gautier Delaye to redesign the supersonic transports cabin environment and fittings. Andre Putman was next selected to leave her mark on the interior design of Air Frances Concordes. Thus modernized with a refined, feminine touch, the SST continued to transport passengers at Mach II for another decade.

1993.

1999. Air France commissioned Desgrippes

Gob to manage all outward signs of the brand, from cabin interiors to websites, and from the visual identity guidelines to commercial architecture.

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2000. Air France deployed new colour

schemes in all cabins and commissioned new Tempo tableware from Radi Designers.

Private cabin in the Lockheed Constellation

Concorde interior by Andre Putman

Boeing 747 / jumbo jet

< Air France

A history of luxury in French style

2001. French design office Absolut Reality

was asked to pilot the discussions around a new seat for Air France aircraft. Subsequently, it worked more closely on the design of seating in lEspace Affaires, manufactured by Britax and Design Acumen. The latter, which partners British manufacturer Britax, designed the seats that convert into beds in lEspace Premire.

A new world of travel pleasure

2002. Following a 3-year assignment from
Air France, Paris agency Desgrippes Gob, acting as prime contractor for the new concept, commissioned interior designer Eric Gizard to define the style of the overall cabin environment together with the seat upholstery and accessories in lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires. Simultaneously, Art Director Alain Dor was defining the new lounge concept for Air France, the first example of which was inaugurated recently in the spectacular Terminal 2E at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, designed by architect Paul Andreu.

Since those heady early days, speed is within everyones reach and often has a bad press, while air travel has become a routine chore for some of us. The rapid emergence of new communication aids and equally fast democratization of the new technologies have combined to plunge present day society into a state of stress that is anything but conducive to well-being and leisurely activity. Emerging new approaches to passenger transport are also forcing the airline majors to consider their business from an unusual angle. As early as 1998, realizing that the years ahead would be fraught with large-scale upheaval, Air France began working on a programme to develop its travel amenities. This was the outcome of a major customer survey, an in-depth exploration of changing expectations with respect to travelling, comfort and efficiency, and of a tightly-focused study of new behaviour and consumption patterns. This latest attempt to address all the senses was also an exercise in deploying a characteristically French approach to luxury unfussy and unostentatious, and tending to launch new standards that would emerge as tomorrows classics. Several external contributors were involved in this project, including the Desgrippes Gob, Absolut Reality and Design Acumen agencies. To achieve the desired result, Air France also brought its own flight crews on board.

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The Air France brand image now contains this new built-in esthetic, which will be experienced on the ground and inflight in exclusive, relaxed environments, with new standards of travelling comfort in all cabin classes. The project has been something of a velvet revolution centered on materials, form, light and unobtrusive technology that epitomizes a specifically French slant on contemporary design and sets new standards for timeless French chic. The quest for straightforward passenger well-being has been superseded by one for out-and-out delight. Air Frances all-pervasive attentiveness means that all passengers in lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires will be cared for with an aim of total personalization right from check-in. Redesigned for maximum indulgence and personal space, cabins will now be an extension of passengers personal territory where they will be free to decide their own privacy or sociability levels. By giving passengers back their individual status and social distinctions the cardinal virtues of the golden age of air travel Air France is launching a new era. From music to fine food, all our senses are invited to an individual cornucopia of luxury.

< Air France

A history of luxury in French style

On the way before even getting off the ground

Air France recreates the lounge

The new ground facilities

LEspace Premire lounge in Terminal 2E at Paris-CDG

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On the way before even getting off the ground

The reality underpinning Air Frances new travel philosophy is perceptible as soon as passengers arrive at the new Terminal 2E at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. Designed by architect Paul Andreu in conjunction with Jean-Michel Fourcade and Anne Brison, the terminal is an outstanding airport facility whose wing-shaped design represents a formidable architectural feat. The thousands of square metres of marble paving are spanned by the 450-metre long wooden roof, made from ayous, a wood from Cameroon traditionally used in river transport. Ayous has an amazing ability to absorb noise and gives off a pleasant natural fragrance. In the check-in areas, the key word is softness, with red carpets for lEspace Premire passengers and blue ones for lEspace Affaires. Passengers can check in early and are provided with all the necessary information about their flight. In late 2003 a dedicated area will be available for lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires passengers. As soon as passengers arrive in the new terminal, the spirit of this new travel concept imposes itself unobtrusively and effectively.

lEspace Affaires lounge in Terminal 2E at Paris-CDG

> Air France has more lounges worldwide than any other airline a total of 54 distinct facilities, rising to 179 counting those shared with the SkyTeam Alliance. > Inaugurated on 25 June 2003, Terminal 2E features 160 check-in counters and will eventually handle 10 million passengers annually for the SkyTeam alliance, which comprises AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta, and Korean Air. > The lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires lounges are located airside at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airports Terminal 2E and have a respective capacity of 48 and 368 passengers in a surface area of 250 sq.m. and 1,800 sq.m. They are open from 6am to midnight.

< The new ground facilities

Air France has inaugurated the new lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires lounges in Terminal 2 E. Interior architecture and decor are reminiscent of the lobby of a luxury hotel. On the strength of its exploration of travel, rest, and relaxation, and underpinned by careful observation of how people move, Air France has sought to provide travellers with a new concept in furnishings and has created a new, contemporary French style that marks the first real new design departure of the early 21st century. Everything was designed to measure, from the banquettes to the Corian pedestal tables, and from the tables in the work areas to the wine bar, in a continually-improving, two-year programme.

Air France recreates the lounge

> All lounge furnishings were designed by architect Eric Gizard. > All armchairs, sofas, work area seating, refreshment tables and electronic massage beds were manufactured exclusively for Air France by French design house Artelano. > Coffee tables, occasional tables and the bar were manufactured by the Lallier company. > Light fixtures are by Metal Concept, a subsidiary of the Artemide group of Italy.

Open from the early morning, the two lounges give passengers a pre-flight foretaste of Air Frances tranquil vision of lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires passenger well-being. Oak, leather, carpeting and parquet flooring, glass, metal and Corian partitions and carefully-designed lighting all add up to an elegant, relaxed environment. A number of privacy areas are equipped with electronic massage beds. With its showers, make-up areas and extensive work spaces, the architectural concept and its component parts is easy to read and understand. For passengers wishing to take a breather or re-establish contact with the outside world, there is a bar stocked with plentiful snacks, a selection of international newspapers and magazines, and wifi Internet access by Orange at any time of the day. Add in a smoking area and magnificent views and you have a space that provides a soothing pre-flight interlude to take any stress out of waiting. The lounges also offer a foretaste of the new long-haul cabin environment in lEspace Premire and lEspace Affaires.

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2
Terminal 2E at Paris-CDG
Individual waiting area l'Espace Premire lounge Restaurant l'Espace Affaires lounge Make-up area l'Espace Affaires lounge Rest area l'Espace Premire lounge Work area l'Espace Affaires

< The new ground facilities

lEspace Premire Air Frances first 100% luxury brand

lEspace Premire - from flying lounge

to hotel suite

The new l'Espace Premire

The new Air France lEspace Premire

> 8 seats > 50% more personal space > A real bed with mattress > The pinnacle of luxury in French style

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lEspace Premire: Air Frances first 100% luxury brand

As Concorde approached the end of its commercial lifespan, Air France decided to give the spirit of First Class travel a renewed lustre whose contemporary features are set to become the defining standards of inflight luxury. There are very few airlines currently offering this level of service. After an in-depth analysis of the latest commercial strategies and the general upgrading of air travel services, Air France has created a new frontier with its lEspace Premire product, an exclusive environment whose high degree of excellence is forging the Companys new brand image and is set to join the great tradition of luxury aviation currently only available to passengers chartering private jets. For Air France, maintaining a First Class service was a deliberate choice that called for total luxury and a choice of destination, with twenty carefully-selected routes where passengers will enjoy the full measure of lEspace Premire and Air France the concomitant commercial benefits. Pre-flight and inflight, one-of-a-kind luxury products have a bright future ahead of them and the new Air France product will be a premier contributing factor.
> Each of the eight lEspace Premire seats comprises a PC power outlet, a 10.4-inch video screen, a personal telephone, indirect lighting and an individual fibre-optic reading light. > 33 Air France aircraft, including nine new Boeing 777-300s will be fitted out with the new l'Espace Premire cabin style between April 2004 and Summer 2005.

< The new Espace Premire

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3
> CV DESGRIPPES GOBE Founded in 1971 by Jol Desgrippes, the Desgrippes Gob agency is the world leading consultancy for image strategy and brand management, with offices in Asia, the United States and Europe. It is currently among the Top Five international design agencies. Desgrippes Gobs customers include Air France, MacDonalds, Coca-Cola, Versace, Boucheron, Lancme, Danone, ColgatePalmolive, Go Sport, Accor, MMA, and Sofinco. Alain Dor and Eric Gizard spent two years overseeing the creation and artistic direction of the new Air France cabin environment.

< The new Espace Premire

lEspace Premire from flying lounge

A creative philosophy requires an equal dose of audacity to turn it into reality. Underpinning Air Frances all-round travel concept lies painstaking research into what makes a luxury environment and how cabin space can be managed. The notion of cabin class has given way to that of an all-embracing cabin environment, with a corresponding shift in the notion of comfort itself. Cosmeticological concepts have radically transformed the approach to objects, while innovation has been used to serve the privacy of travellers, who are increasingly demanding respect for their persons and their social status, for their vital space and their personal privacy. The final outcome was a First Class environment with just eight seats and no more. Each seat is surrounded by an extensive privacy area, some 50% bigger than previously, identified by red carpeting. Within this area, passengers are attentively encouraged to do as they please, whether this involves sleep, fine food, entertainment, work or simply daydreaming, in complete confidentiality. Air Frances lEspace Premire piles on the refinements in a discreetly luxurious and elegant atmosphere whose colour coding and fabrics have been chosen to replicate

Air Frances lEspace Premire offers endless refinement in a discreetly

luxurious and elegant environment

Real pleasure aboard can often come from the simpler things in life

the spirit of a lounge in the sky that can double up as a private study. Much of this is achieved via the new seat, which folds out into a real bed. The seat is a quintessence of multiple innovations whose technological complexity disappears behind a sophisticated upholstery combining leather and a mix of wool and cashmere in a range of beige, camel and grey-beige. Discreetly integrated into the furniture to ensure that they do not intrude when not in use and help preserve the tranquility of each individual space, the seats screens and trays match the overall colour scheme and are electrically deployed and stowed. The lines of the new seats are underscored by brick-red topstitched cushions, a red, 100% pure wool blanket, and headrest covers in grey-beige leather.

> CV DESIGN ACUMEN Design Acumen is an independent design agency based in London. It specializes in designing industrial products in the transport sector it was Design Acumen that invented the bed in the sky concept and in graphic design. The agency works on cabin interiors with aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus or Boeing and in conjunction with Britax, worked on the project and design for the new lEspace Premire seat, helping to define the external lines of the seat, its location in the cabin, and its multiple functions. It also designed the mock-up seats used in client testing. Design Acumens aim in designing this seat was to make it a unique artefact unlike any other traditional passenger seat. The spirit is resolutely that of the lounge so much so, in fact, that the seat would not look out of place in a luxury hotel lobby. The seat is low, upholstered in light colours, trim and elegant.

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to hotel suite
Nothing is quite so sacred for Air France as a passengers rest. Consequently, the new lEspace Premire seat, which folds out to an unprecedented two metres, transforms into a wide bed that flight attendants will rapidly equip with a real mattress, a soft duvet and a rectangular hypoallergenic feather pillow fitted with a Venice openwork pillowcase. Second only to rest is the moment of wakening. Sometimes, all it takes is the aroma of freshly-made coffee and toast to put passengers into a good humour in the minutes preceding touchdown. A real toaster and a new tea service go to

waking up to the aroma of fresh coffee...

show that real pleasure aboard can come from the simpler things in life. Rounding off the refined environment of lEspace Premire, Air Frances attentive cabin staff provide passengers with a sure-footed personal service that also protects individual privacy. Second-guessing expectations and constant attention to passenger comfort are an integral part of the characteristic Air France service levels in lEspace Premire. The standard of service also owes much to Guy Martin, the Michelin-starred chef of the Grand Vfour restaurant in Paris. Guy Martin has already created a stir with his partnership with Air France on the Paris-Tokyo route and has here contributed not only as a consultant for the First Class environment but also designed the menus.
> CV ABSOLUT REALITY Set up in 1991 by Christophe Pradre, Absolut Reality is a Paris-based agency that spearheaded the explorations for the new Air France seat designs. Recently, the agency, which has also produced designs for NEC/Packard Bell, Matra and Lancme, was on hand for the launch of Bordeauxs new Alstom-built tramline for which it designed the interior and exterior.

< The new l'Espace Premire

lEspace Affaires where everything is better

Privacy and sociability peace and quiet take over

A bed for enhanced comfort

The new l'Espace Affaires

The new lEspace Affaires

> Seat-bed folds out to 180. > 27% more personal space > Individual space guaranteed by shell-structure > Two separate bar areas.

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lEspace Affaires where everything is better

For Air France, redefining the functions and benefits of its lEspace Affaires business class involved, as with the upgrading of lEspace Premire, objectively re-thinking all the parameters that had hitherto governed its nature and operation. The objective was crystal-clear, which was to imagine a concept that would propel Air Frances Business Class onto a higher plane than that generally operated by competing airlines. LEspace Affaires typifies everything Air France is doing to take its entire product range upscale. Designed and decorated as a continuation of lEspace Premire, the lEspace Affaires cabin environment is a subtle blend of rigour and curves expressed in shades of blue. The new lEspace Affaires seat, with its dynamic curves reminiscent of the Streamlined style, accentuated with brushed aluminium, navy-blue leather and mother-of-pearl imitation leather, paradoxically evokes the comfort and ease of the first long-distance business trips with US executives and female fortune-hunters aboard the great luxury trains of the pre-WWII years, that furnished so many Hollywood plots.

< The new l'Espace Affaires

Rest, watch a film, eat, isolate oneself or quite simply stretch out completely for sleep.

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Privacy and sociability: peace and quiet take over

Harking back to the principles decreed several decades ago by French designer Pierre Paulin, who stated that a seat must protect the sitter, the new, exclusively-designed seats are centered around a shell-like structure that is perfect for accommodating the body in the seated position and to guarantee its comfort. Symbolically created so that passengers can snuggle down and settle in, the shell structure is doubly protective, since it is the seat itself that finds a refuge in the shell, followed by the passenger. As a result, throughout the long-haul flight, occupants can read, stretch their legs, work, take the weight off their feet, chat with neighbours, watch a film, eat, isolate themselves or, more simply, sleep in the flat-out position at 180 without their vital space encroaching on that of others and vice-versa. Generously mapping out an expanded living space for passengers, these totally innovative new seats, fitted two or three abreast, leave no impression of disorder in the cabin, with the result that they immediately create a sense of unbroken tranquility throughout the flight.

< The new l'Espace Affaires

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A bed for enhanced comfort

Seen in isolation, each travel space provides passengers with an amount of autonomy rarely encountered in a Business Class. This is because seats operate as a vertical personal storage space, offering the perfect solution for newspapers and magazines, a pair of spectacles, a bottle of mineral water, a pair of shoes or a jacket, while keeping everything immediately to hand. When passengers prepare for sleep, each seat transforms into a lie-flat seat-bed, with large pillows taking over from the wide headrests of earlier seating. Built-in individual reading lights mean passengers can have a late-night read without disturbing their neighbours, while a blanket matching the cabin colour scheme provides a final touch of comfort. Encouraged by cabin staff to experience their flight like some unhoped-for escapade, passengers in the new lEspace Affaires environment know that their privilege-rich flight will be a significant departure from their daily routine and that in the space of their round-trip flight, they will enjoy as high a degree of privacy and relaxed sociability as they desire. With lEspace Affaires, Air France has shifted into the major mode for its business passengers.

< The new l'Espace Affaires

Air France - Corporate Communications Division - Press Office - 45, rue de Paris - F-95747 Roissy-CDG cedex Internet: www.airfrance.com/corporate - Tel.: +33 (0)1 41 56 56 00 - Fax: +33 (0)1 41 56 84 19

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