Air France launches domestic business class

The only reason they have this style of business class is the flexible cabin arrangements that can make anything from 1-10+ rows of business depending on demand of each individual flight. The problem comes on those longer euro routes of 4-5 hours where this style is still the only business class option. I recently flew over 4hrs LPA-LHR with BA business class and the business class section was stretched all the way back to the overwing exit row 12 and was full.

Don't feel too sorry for us. We have outstanding HSR between most Western European capitals able to wisk us between city centres in a couple of hours with none of the downside of short haul flying. 45mins in a wider aircraft seat with a gobbled down and very average wine and meal for 1000AUD does not make me jealous.

High speed rail is a nice idea but if we started building now MEL-SYD-BNE it would be like 5+ years before done and billions of $$$ and in the next 15-25 years for sure we will be seeing flying cars so it's probably the next NBN waste of time

We used to achieve big things regularly in Australia when it came to public infrastructure. The Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, the original railways and underground lines, come to mind.

Now we've been poisoned by corporatist dogma that no such projects make sense because they are not 'profitable.' Public infrastructure is the enabler of the economy, not it's business case.

Living in Europe for 17 years, this new found Australian defeatism is certainly something I do not miss.

@JKH @OzGlobal the problem with trying to build HSR in AU is that the ticket price would be so exorbitant in order to offset the cost of the infrastructure investment that it would, in most instances, be more expensive than an airfare. I love HSR and am all for it, it's the feasibility that knocks it on its head.

And, as for Eurobusiness, well - most airlines offering the same thing: Y seats, block the middle one, no extra legroom, a meal and slightly premium drinks, and lounge access.

@lafleche You could have used the same argument against HSR in Japan, Germany, France, Spain and anywhere else it is thriving if you'd wanted to at the time. What's required is long term vision and an appreciation of the contribution of public infrastructure to the economy as a whole. It is naive to subject public infrastructure to a simple commercial business case. You will never build anything. A 25 year impact on the overall economy and its development is what is needed. This then justifies sinking the cost of the foundation - the lines. The services are then sold commercial on top and can be opened to multiple operators to compete. Impact: massive opening up of regional areas and overall positive growth of the economy through enhanced mobility. How much does the AUS government spend each year to prop up regional Australia and try to incentivise people to work there? How much will be spent on the then unnecessary Badgery's Creek airport and surrounding connecting infrastructure? SYD-MEL is the second busiest air corridor in the world. The distance is roughly the same as Paris Marseille - a full HSR since 2001 - 3hrs flat and faster than flying.

Globally, the jury really is back in on this one.

Again - Australian defeatism.

@OzGlobal Yes and no.

The problem with comparing Australia against France et al is that all these countries pack far more people into much less land, so their dense population centres are all relatively close to each other. We do not have anything approaching this level of density in Australia, so the equation works out very poorly for HSR here.

@watson374 Sorry but this is a just a received anti-HSR corporatist sophistry. SYD-MEL is roughly the same distance as Paris - Marseille - 800km. 800km is the same distance whether you are in France or Australia. Is it not? Australia is less populated per square km on AVERAGE, but FAR more highly urbanised than France. HSR is about linking city pairs under 1000km apart. It turns out Australia has multiple such city pairs and the populations of those cities, e.g. SYD, MEL and BNE are LARGER than all French cities apart from Paris. Marseille is less than 2 Million. SYD and MEL are around 5 million each and the SAME DISTANCE apart as Paris and Marseille. With a SYD-MEL HSR, you also get CBR thrown in and both SYD-CBR and MEL-CBR are also super busy city pairs. The final clincher is that SYD-MEL is the second business air corridor in the WORLD. Hence, the infrastructure case for HSR SYD-MEL is much stronger than that of Paris - Marseille which was built 20 years ago, runs at 300-320km/h and takes 3 hrs city centre to city centre and has all but eliminated air travel between the cities. .

@OzGlobal Sure, but you're conveniently ignoring the fact that the Paris to Marseille TGV passes through Lyon.

@watson374 Fair enough. That was a factor in building the line progressively. However, the majority of Marseille services do not pass through Lyon, but are served direct. The Mediterranean line branches off to Marseille BEFORE Lyon. I take it regularly. Apart from Paris - Marseille, consider also Paris - Bordeaux - 650 km, Paris - Brussels 320 km, Paris - Strasbourg 450 km, Paris - Dijon - Mulhouse 650 km. All of these lines are full HSR at 300 - 320 km/ h. That's a huge amount of accomplished investment for a country with just over 2 x Australia's population. No-one is suggesting building an HSR SYD-PER. My point is that arguments about population density are not relevant on corridors like SYD-CBR-MEL because we do have both the population AND the traffic to more than make a success of HSR on that corridor based on many other really world example.