There's a new airline for hipsters. But not everyone's impressed

At stake is Air France's ability to defend European routes against further incursions from no-frills specialists led by Ryanair Holdings

What corporate France lacks in cost-cutting potential, it makes up for in style. That at least appears to be the recipe at Joon, the latest aviation brainchild of Air France-KLM Group, which starts operating this week.

The pitch goes like this: tech-savvy and fashion-conscious flight attendants serve de rigueur staples from baobab juice to organic quinoa salad as millennials jet from Paris to Barcelona and Brazil at discount rates, streaming videos above the clouds.

The reality, of course, is slightly less glamorous: the hipster pitch simply sugars the pill. Scratch beneath the surface and Joon, a riff on “jeune,” French for young,