Manon Fossat 1:16 p.m., October 18, 2021

One week before the school holidays, Alain Krakovitch, general manager of Voyages SNCF, was the guest of Europe Matin on Monday.

He said he was optimistic about the return of "leisure" passengers and also noted a resumption of business trips since the beginning of September.

A rather encouraging situation for the group.

INTERVIEW

School holidays are approaching for young French people and with them the return of train journeys.

Guest of Dimitri Pavlenko in Europe Matin, Alain Krakovitch, general manager of Voyages SNCF, said he was optimistic about the return of "leisure" passengers, and assured to have observed a recovery since this summer.

He also welcomed the rebound in business travel, a key sector for the group.

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"Since the summer our trains have been full on weekends for departures and returns. It's very positive and we are already recording a very good reservation rate," he said.

Indeed the SNCF recorded a record day in early October with a million tickets sold in 24 hours for the All Saints and Christmas holidays.

"We still have to be careful but this opening of sales was a very good day. Since the health crisis, the French are less anticipating and buy their tickets much later. This is what means that we still have a slight delay with 2019 ", explained Alain Krakovitch.

3,500 teleworking subscriptions sold

The CEO of Voyages SNCF has also noted a rebound in business travel activity in recent weeks, a crucial segment for the group since it represents 20% of traffic and 40% of turnover.

"We believed that teleworking and videoconferences would eliminate a large part of business travel and the observation that we can make since the beginning of September is that 60% of the pros have returned and decide to travel. 75% of SMEs and very small businesses have returned to the train ", he detailed.

According to him, while it is obvious that internal trips to companies have decreased, this is not the case for trips to meet customers.

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Voyages SNCF also launched before the summer a teleworking package of 250 trips per year, with a 40% reduction compared to the traditional subscription.

A device that works very well.

“We sold 3,500 of these subscriptions, which is very important. And when we look at all of our subscribers, those who travel every day and those who travel two to three times a week, we realize that 'they are more numerous today than in 2019 at the same time ".