BA has announced that its subsidiary OpenSkies has bookings ahead of projections, and that moves to incorporate the French all-business class carrier L”Avion are underway.
Speaking with ABTN in Miami, Richard Tams, general manager of UK and Irelanc corporate sales, said several challenges are faced by the all-business class model.
”You have to face the fact that for 17 out of 52 weeks, you are dealing with a holiday either on Monday or Friday on one side of the Atlantic or the other. For OpenSkies [BA”s service from Charles de Gaule), that”s why we have a three-class product on board.”
OpenSkies flights are served with a B757 aircraft configured with 82 seats in a three-class layout ” 24 business class seats, 28 premium economy and 30 in economy, partly for this reason.
BA has paid ”54 million for L”Avion, covering the purchase of the airline and ”26 million of cash in its business. The OpenSkies subsidiary only launched on June 19, originally in a codeshare agreement with L”Avion, which had up to two daily flights between Paris Orly and New York Newark. The French airline also uses Boeing 757 aircraft, although these are configured for 90 seats in an all-business class layout. It seems this fleet may well be configured to BA”s three configuration, though Tams said this has yet to be decided.
The takeover marked the demise of the last stand-alone all-business class airline, following on from Maxjet, Eos and Silverjet over the last six months, although Lufthansa does still operate all-business class flights outside of their mainstream offering.
For more information visit flyopenskies.com.
Tom Otley