SNCF has lost four billion euros since the start of the coronavirus crisis, half of which because of the TGV lines. Since the deconfinement, the railway company is still struggling to fill its trains, and therefore launches a new commercial operation during this period. Alain Krakovitch, director of Voyages SNCF, presents this exceptional commercial operation on Europe 1 on Thursday.
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"We were already doing low prices but here we are doing even more: five million small prices at less than 49 euros, including on very long destinations," explains the director. A seduction operation "essential" according to him because the priority of SNCF is "getting our customers back on the train".
"We are late"
Despite a regular resumption of traffic and an increase in frequentation, certain trains display an occupancy rate still too low for the season, notes Alain Krakovitch. "The booking rhythm is correct but we are late; we have trains which are not yet full, on average at 50% occupancy rate in July, even if it goes up to 80% on weekends. sees that the French are still quite wait-and-see since in August, we are still only 35% ".
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For this, in addition to the low prices, the SNCF reminds that "no constraint" is imposed on the traveler: "they can book without any risk. Even if they decide at the last moment, they can still cancel without charge. is really in an incentive policy, so that our customers come back on the trains. "