The Pays de Roissy-CDG non-profit body, set up in 2003 at the initiative of Air France, has over 300 members active in the social and economic, political and personal spheres, on its territory. Its aim is to foster the development of a catchment area comprising 110 municipalities located within a radius of 15km around Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

In the framework of its sustainable development policy, Air France is contributing to a coaching programme for SMEs operating near Paris-Charles de Gaulle, along with other large corporates, in an effort to help them to develop.

From a belgian initiative, the PLATO business network has spread worldwide today. PLATO is a Flemish acronym for Petershap (parenting), Leerplan (training plan), Arrondissement (district), Turhout (place of origin) and Ondernemingen (companies). In France, around 800 larges corporates and 8,500 SMEs have signed up.

In one corner are the “parent” companies. Air France, like the others companies, delegates an executive, who volunteers for the task, to coach the SME.

In the other corner are the 90 business leaders representing every economic sector operating around Paris-Charles de Gaulle. In groups of 15-25 these bosses benefit, one evening a month, from a training programme run by three coaches, during two years.

Playing a central role in the mechanism, running the programme and providing experts, is the Versaille-Val d’Oise Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), backed up the Seine-Saint-Denis and Seine-et-Marne CCIs, all in Greater Paris.

The session’s program focuses various subjects as recruitment, exporting, marketing, communication and so on. Theaim of the business leaders is to be more effective in the various aspects of running their companies, gain access to a network of experts, swap views about their experiences.

SODESI thus makes its tools and expertise available to all involved in local economic development work. These are developed in the course of assignments on behalf of Group personnel, and in particular in the area of support for setting up or taking over a business or for professional retraining.

In 2006-07, on behalf of Air France, SODESI:

• chaired the "Economic Development and Business Start-ups" committee organized by the non-profit Association Entreprendre in Tremblay, near Paris-CDG,  and in particular took part in the "Summer Jobs" initiative,
• sat on the Aéropôle Evaluation Committee, an enterprise zone at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport www.aeropole-roissy.com,,
• sat on supervisory committees for the Orly site conference,
• took part in the support group implementing the Regional Economic Development Programme,
• sponsored the winners of the "93 entreprendre" competition www.reseau-entreprendre.org. ,
• chaired SAI (Seine Amont Initiative) and Val de Marne Active, two funds providing loans on trust and loan sureties,
• sat on the Development and Employment strategic committee.

In the framework of its responsibilities for promoting Air France group staff mobility, SODESI made special contributions to:

• support for spin-offs (ie, the launch of start-ups by Air France employees),
• assistance for the spouses of staff moving to a new area,
• support for block release training to gain access to work and life experience qualifications.

The Ingénieurs Pour l’Ecole ("Engineers for Schools") voluntary body was set up by a number of large corporations including Air France, which "lend" executives to selected local education authorities for short periods so that they can put their professional experience to use in the education system. IPEs are expected to come up with innovative initiatives in the areas of career guidance, training and qualifications for young people, enabling Air France to develop a presence in the French regions and to forge ties with local institutions. These assignments help to bring the world of work closer to that of the national education system.

In 2006, Air France had eleven IPEs working in local education authorities in continental France and Martinique.

The Fondation de la 2éme Chance ("Second Chance Foundation") was set up to help people who have experienced extreme difficulty causing them to be in severely precarious situations, but who nevertheless show a genuine desire to bounce back via a personal work project such as obtaining a vocational qualification or setting up or taking over a business. This "helping hand" involves both financial help and mentoring. Air France became the 50th member of this foundation in 2005 and has worked with 12 applicants to date.