Elysair SAS, operating as L'Avion (French for "The plane"), was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

headquartered in

Paray Vieille Poste Paray-Vieille-Poste () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. Paris-Orly Airport is partially located in the commune. History Paray-Vieille-Poste originated from the old village of Paray, which had about 6 ...

, France, near

Wissous Wissous () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. Paris-Orly Airport is partially located in the commune. Population Inhabitants of Wissous are known as ''Wissoussiens''. History Wissous appears in ...

. It operated business class-only long-haul service between

Orly Airport Paris Orly Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly , is one of two international airports serving the French capital, Paris, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly an ...

, Paris and

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport , originally Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport straddling the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union Count ...

in the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The airline was sold to

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

and has since merged with

OpenSkies OpenSkies was a French airline owned by International Airlines Group (IAG) which operated under the Level (airline brand), Level brand prior to closing down, and before that operated under its own brand name. Its headquarters were located in ...

, a wholly owned subsidiary of

History

Founded by young French entrepreneur

Frantz Yvelin Frantz Yvelin is a French businessman, pilot, and serial entrepreneur. He was the President (corporate title), President of Aigle Azur, France's 2nd largest airline until August 26, 2019. Frantz Yvelin previously created and ran two French independ ...

and run by CEO Marc Rochet and Frantz Yvelin, L'Avion was the marketing name for Elysair. It had been created as Elysair but changed to use the marketing name "L'AVION" in late autumn 2006 after market research showed the new name tested well in the US and in France. L'Avion kept Elysair as its call sign and corporate name. The first flight was on 3 January 2007 from Paris to

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

. The airline did have plans to expand to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. Similar to the concept that was later used by

Silverjet Silverjet was a British all- business class airline headquartered at London Luton Airport in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that, prior to the suspension of operations on 30 May 2008, operated services to Newark Liberty International Airport an ...

, L'Avion offered a premium-only service on TransAtlantic routes. It used two

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the Boeing 727, 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. ...

aircraft, maintained by Lufthansa Technik (and modified by Gamco in Abu Dhabi) with detailed engineering and on site supervision at Gamco by Northview Aviation. H4 Aerospace helped to undertake certification. The Aircraft were configured with a total of only 90 seats in a 2x2 configuration. The seating and service level was all Business class. It offered laptop power at every seat, French food and wine, and seats that reclined by 140 degrees. L'Avion featured "On-Demand" digEplayer XT individual units with a 7" screen. L'Avion was wholly owned by Société de Participation Aérienne (SPA) and had about 100 employees in 2008. On 2 July 2008

announced it had agreed to buy L'Avion for £54 million. The deal was completed in July 2008 and resulted in the full integration of L'Avion with

. Operations of the two airlines were merged on 4 April 2009, with the former now operating as OpenSkies, a wholly British Airways owned French airline subsidiary.

Destinations

; *

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

''base'' ; *

Fleet

Boeing_757-230_L'Avion_F-HAVN,_FRA_Frankfurt_(Rhein-Main),_Germany_PP1176017224

When merged with OpenSkies, the L'Avion fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

References

External links

* * {{Airlines of France Airlines established in 2006 Airlines disestablished in 2008 Defunct airlines of France Business class airlines

History

Destinations

Fleet

See also

References

External links