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 or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

headquartered in Paray Vieille Poste, France, near Wissous. It operated business class-only long-haul service between

Orly Airport Paris Orly Airport (, ) is one of two international airports serving Paris, France, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, south of Paris. It serves as a sec ...

, Paris and

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport straddles the boundary between the cities of Newark, New Jersey, Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and E ...

in the USA. The airline was sold to

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

and has since merged with OpenSkies, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways.

History

Founded by young French entrepreneur Frantz Yvelin 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 Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...

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. The airline did have plans to expand to the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. Similar to the concept that was later used by Silverjet, L'Avion offered a premium-only service on TransAtlantic routes. It used two Boeing 757-200 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 OpenSkies. 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 city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

''base'' ; * Newark -

Fleet

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