Flying alow-cost, trans-Atlantic, is now possible with L’Avion

For those who are familiar with the French language, you probably know that “avion” means “airplane”. For those who are even more familiar with the French language, you probably know that “L’Avion” means “The Airplane”. And for those who are familiar with business, you probably heard of “L’Avion”; the new trans-Atlantic low-cost airliner.

Back in January 2002, an engineer, Frantz Yvelin, found it strange that long haul low-costs did not exist. The months past by, and he decided to start a project; an entirely business-class, low-cost, trans-Atlantic airline. The company’s project was called: “Elysair”. A year passes by, a financier, Christophe Bejach, seemed impressed by the concept and decides to file this concept to bankers and investors. A man named Marc Rochet was officially chosen as manager of this start-up. By November 2006, “L’Avion” bought its first aircraft; a Boeing 757-200.

Today, “L’Avion” operates one daily flight from Paris’s Orly airport to New York City’s Newark International Airport. The aircraft is a 100% business-class - 170° flat seats. It’s particularity is that it is a low-cost airline; round-trip tickets can start at 700 dollars to only 1 500 dollars. Competitive prices, competitive services, and reliability, since both airports used by “L’Avion” are conveniently located and fairly organized. Paris’s Orly Airport is known for being close to the city and security is not as long as big international airports, such as JFK, LAX, or Dulles. Newark is known for being a cheap and organized airport.

This concept is clearly innovative and has a good chance of being successful. Nowadays, looking for a low fare - trans-Atlantic - ticket is quite difficult. The only way of finding a low fare ticket is to book months in advance. However, L’Avion offers the possibility of flying business-class on a low fare on one of the busiest and most attractive lines in the world; Paris - New York. The business-class is obviously not as luxurious as Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, and other well-known airliners. The seats on L’Avion are a bit tighter, the legroom isn’t as important, and the quality is not as good. Yet, it is considered as business-class and the seats are quite comfortable.

It is planning on expanding on busy lines, and it has recently bought a second aircraft. However, as they keep on expanding, they are wondering if people will be interested in flying their airlines. L’Avion is not a member of any kind of airline alliances or groups. The problem with not being a member of an alliance is that travelers will not be able to spend their miles on L’Avion. Some travelers have accumulated a significant amount of miles, and might prefer spending it on the airlines they can spend it on. As long as L’Avion does not join an alliance/group, it will have difficulties opening up to the second market; the one where travelers have miles to spend from other airlines.