Uncertainties linked to the coronavirus lead the French to book their TGV tickets at the last moment, but the summer should be less catastrophic than expected, explains Alain Krakovitch, director general of SNCF Voyages, who wants above all to “get people back on the train “.
Q. How does summer look like for the TGV?
What we see is that we have fallen behind. As the French were more wait-and-see and did not have the possibility of planning their holidays, they reserve even more at the last moment than last year. There is a delay for the filling rate which is around 15 to 20 points. In one day, we sell today as much as the same day last year. We’re on the same slope, but it’s two parallel curves…
A fortnight ago, when we looked at the July sales, we were at 10% filling, against 25% a year earlier. And today, we are rather at 35% whereas last year we were at 50% at that time. The gap remains the same. When we make our forecasts at the end of June, it is better than what we expected to do at the end of May. We had a more pessimistic view of the summer, which we were rather considering at –30 / -40%, and here we are rather at –15%. We are starting to have 15% full trains on weekends, and occupancy rates of more than 50% on the first weekends in July.
“The low prices are not new, but here we do twice as much”
Q. Did the situation return to normal?
A. We are really returning to a normal configuration: Junior & Cie (support for children traveling alone, note) reopened on all destinations, catering reopens on July 4, frequent flyer lounges reopened, groups – even ‘there aren’t many – are taken care of again …
Currently, 70% of our trains are running. In July, compared to a benchmark where there would not have been the Covid, we would be 95%. There are TGVs that we have removed because in fact we know that not all of our trains will be full, and we also have a problem of works. The fall of the embankment of the TGV Est (a subsidence on March 5 in Alsace, note) unfortunately led us to remove many trains. With the low prices and the reimbursement of free tickets until the end of the summer, our priority today is to get people back on the train, more than the average basket (the average price paid by a passenger, note).
“Telecommuting, if you are on the TGV side, it is obviously a problem if it avoids travel”
We currently sell every other ticket for less than 49 euros. We are now at 5 million! The low prices are not new, but here we do twice as much. Despite everything, today we still have customers who are worried. All of our teams have made great efforts to prepare our trains, and the health situation of our rolling stock is very good. With masks, and outside ventilation, there is no risk in a TGV. We have very good regularity too, at the moment.
Q. Will the crisis not disrupt travel habits?
A. The effects of the development of telework and videoconferencing will need to be measured. Telecommuting, if you are on the TGV side, it is obviously a problem if it avoids travel. Same if people who made a round trip to Marseille for a meeting no longer do so.
The observation that we make – especially in view of the contacts that we can have in real estate – is that there are people who are starting to sell their apartment in Paris, or in any case looking for houses in 400 or 500 km, and plan to come twice a week to Paris. These are customers that we did not have – because they are people who took the metro or the RER to go to work every day – and that we may have twice a week on our trains. It makes us think about subscriptions, fairly specific offers that we will try to adapt to these people who will travel twice a week.
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