La Compagnie is the all business class transatlantic airline that started flying in mid-2014. Their first route was between Paris and Newark, and I was able to review that flight within days of when they launched operations. Last summer La Compagnie launched flights between Newark and London as well. In March La Compagnie claimed they…
Continue reading: Are La Compagnie’s Days Numbered?
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No all business class airline has EVER succeeded in the long term. People all say that they would pay for more room and services, but of course in the end all they care about is price. That's why we have the air transportation system that we have. It's amazing to me that airline start ups like this can still find enough gullible people to lend them money to fund their start up dreams.
Why not open another station (say BOS, YYZ, YUL) that's within range of 752 operations? Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
It seems these days if you don't have an "alliance" partnership, you're not going to make it. (Not saying they're closing shop - just mentioning that).
Couldn't they (la compagnie) codeshare with AF to compete with an all C/J aircraft like BA runs their baby bus from LCY to JFK?
I don't see the less-than-daily schedule on the second trip to be a red flag; rather, it's network and schedule planning saavy. Lots of airlines do this. If they have a reasonable feel on demand trends, this is a smart strategy to avoid flying an empty plane...which is even worse than parking a leased aircraft.
Agree that La Compagnie has an uphill battle however given the low-fare environment in the transatlantic and lots of new LCCs growing in this market.
Each eight (8) hour period the plane is parked at EWR, they are charged the 70.00$ fee for public aircraft parking weighing between 100'000 to 200'000 pounds of max take-off weight. Considering the Boeing 757-200 is 255'000 pounds for max take-off weight, they are charged the 25.00$ per 25'000 pounds over the limit and the fraction cost of that. So around 122$ per 8 hours. Meaning if atleast one plane is sitting there for en entire 24 hour period they are paying 488$ every day.
That's ~14'640$ per month for parking one aircraft. Not bad, but consider the airline industry is a place of razor thin profit margins, if they're breaking even on just one route for fuel, airport fees, catering, etc, they must be losing money on that plane too. Not to mention other costs associated such as maintenance, management, IT structure, employees, etc, then they're looking quite thin in terms of being able to expand.
Let's add their new planes to the fleet! Cost of all those involved with lower yields and the economic downturn, you'll be damned if they survive through the next summer! I can go into more specific costs, but overall you get my point. Razor thin margins for a start-up airline and false front claims to assure people. Plus how is it they aren't in some sort of IPO? Baltia has one and they haven't even flown a commercial flight. I'd expect the IPO to raise capital for their expansion.
I've tried La Compagnie and the former Openskies IAD-CDG. They are fine since I mainly care about the seat, but I think that the limited number of people only going between those two cities and not connecting on and (2) that fares are frequently low in the major carriers hurts them. Plus I do mileage upgrades when available, which is possible UA, BA and AF but not them.
Part of the issue with transatlantic premium cabin travel is that East Coast US - Europe simply isn't all that long of a flight. I like my business class seats as much as the next guy, but in reality, sitting in an exit row or bulkhead for an extra $200 or so over discount economy is the right value point for a lot of people. I mean, maybe I'd pay $1500 for business class? But 7 hours just isn't long enough of a flight to warrant much extra spend, particularly if I'm on a non-stop flight.
The trappings of business class become most useful when I'm on really long itineraries heading into Asia, When flight time + layover time gets into the 20 hour range, flat beds on all segments and nice lounges become worth some money.
What they need to know now is send the first plane in for a serious over haul. I flew them quite a bit over the last couple of years -- most recently on the original aircraft between Paris and New York. The interior was starting to look very shabby. There were only 65 passengers on the flight that day and they had to jam us all together because so many of the seats were broken. In was an elevated flight experience at all.
I think their main target is to be bought by a foreign airlines. The same way BA bought Openskies and could concentrate its Paris operations in ORY ( Vueling, Iberia, BA and Openskies).Hence BA has a real fleet in Paris and is a minor competitor to AF on profitable segment.
Since its the same owner, I believe the exit strategy on the long run is to be bought by Lufthansa, LaCompagnie lands in StarAlliance's terminals at both departure (Terminal 1 in CDG) and arrival airports (United's Newark).