New Airline Gets Nod to Serve U.S.-France Market

The U.S. Transportation Department gave its approval on December 27 for a new all-business class airline to offer service between France and the U.S.

The DOT’s decision clears the way for L’Avion, formerly Elysair, to launch its inaugural service between Paris (Orly) and New York (Newark) as soon as it’s ready to do so. L’Avion will fly 757 aircraft configured for 100 seats.

The decision makes the carrier the newest entry into the transatlantic, scheduled service, all-business class market. U.S.-based Eos and Maxjet are already flying [New York (Kennedy) to London (Stansted) and Las Vegas, New York (Kennedy) or Washington (Dulles) to London (Stansted), respectively], and London-based Silverjet is scheduled to inaugurate its service between London (Luton) and Newark Jan. 25.

In another twist, the decision increases the possibility that some U.S. carriers will return some service to Orly Airport, which is close to the Paris downtown area.

Several U.S. airlines had argued the DOT should reject L’Avion’s application because the French government kicked U.S. carriers out of Orly years ago and forced them to move all of their services to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport.