In late January I wrote about how French all business class airline La Compagnie would be moving their operations from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Paris Orly Airport. For those of you not familiar with La Compagnie, they started flying in mid-2014, and operate a fleet of two Boeing 757s on up to two daily flights between Newark and Paris.
I’ve reviewed their business class product in the past, and find that they offer an exceptional value, given their very good fares. Their experience should improve even further in 2019, when they take delivery of A321neo aircraft, featuring fully flat seats.
While Charles de Gaulle Airport is perhaps considered Paris’ “premium” airport, in reality Orly Airport is closer to the city, smaller (and therefore easier to use), and presumably it’s also lower cost to operate out of. The catch has been that the airport is slot restricted, and La Compagnie hasn’t been able to get slots, as they’ve been wanting to move for a long time. With airberlin having gone out of business, La Compagnie was assigned some of their slots, meaning they can finally make the move.
Originally we were just told that this change would happen in the summer of 2018, though we now have more information. La Compagnie will be making the move to Paris Orly Airport as of April 22, 2018, which is sooner than I was expecting.
Here’s the flight schedule they publish:
We were initially told that La Compagnie was only assigned 10 weekly slots at Paris Orly Airport. That surprised me a bit, since I wondered if they’d just operate one of their planes three days per week (which is quite inefficient, since planes don’t make any money sitting on the ground), or if they’d split operations, and still operate some flights out of Charles de Gaulle, which also seems inefficient.
It looks like La Compagnie got their hands on more slot, as they’ll operate 13x weekly flights between Newark and Paris Orly as of May 1, 2018 (the only day of the week that won’t have twice daily service is Monday).
At the moment the airline has ~$1,400 roundtrip fares from Newark to Paris, though in the past we’ve seen even lower fares, starting at just $1,000 roundtrip.
To those who frequently fly to/from Paris, how do you feel about the move to Orly?
Would love to fly with them on April 31st...just don’t get why they seem not to like March 31st
I live just outside the south west of Paris. ORY is to the South East but it is still easier to get to CDG in the north by public transport!
Furthermore the airline lounges at ORY are generally nowhere near as good as CDG (I particularly like the Cathay lounge at CDG).
That said, if flying LaCompagnie, you will be in a contract lounge anyway and those are generally very poor at CDG so the move is no great loss on that front.
I appreciate that it is cheaper and faster to get to Orly most of the time, but the experience there pales in comparison to other "second airports" around the world like LGW, DMK, OAK, and others. However, speaking relatively, it isn't that much worse than CDG - at least to me; comparing ORY to CDG is like comparing bad with worse...as much as I miss living in Paris, I don't miss the airport experience there one bit!
@snic Been through Orly a few times. Not bad, but not great. It’s like a cross between LGA and MDW. The most annoying part for me is that the “halls” (independent sections of gates behind security) are very small with limited options for food or drinks. On my last trip, the border officer forgot to change the date on her exit stamp, which ironically ended up being the only readable one for the whole trip....
@snic Been through Orly a few times. Not bad, but not great. It’s like a cross between LGA and MDW. The most annoying part for me is that the “halls” (independent sections of gates behind security) are very small with limited options for food or drinks. On my last trip, the border officer forgot to change the date on her exit stamp, which ironically ended up being the only readable one for the whole trip.
Not 100% sure what hall they will leave from - most long hauls seem to leave from Sud which at least has a PP lounge. The hall you depart from makes a big difference.
@ Davis Zilch, nada, nothing, nichts - or to use the fitting language - rien. That's the risk of buying separate tickets
I just wish this airline flew out of O’Hare.
Support la compagnie,. Terrific airline , wish they would go to more cities
@Ben: "I already think CDG is not at the level Paris deserves as a major city"
Ha, you can say that again. It's probably worse than JFK, if that were possible. I haven't been through ORY and I wonder how it could be even worse - but then again, LGA is smaller and worse than JFK, so the symmetry is complete.
@Ben I may not be a local Parisian, but when flying from LON for Business I used to fly to Paris quite often and I completely agree with you on both points and especially CDG being an airport that Paris does not deserve.
Thanks
As a Parisian born and raised boy, Orly feels to me like the really cheap one. I never fly there; the commute is bad, and the whole experience feels very low standard. I already think CDG is not at the level Paris deserves as a major city, but Orly honestly... XD
You mean no 2x flights on Tuesday?
Davis. No. As you said a separate contract
A connection is the same ticket
“Le bus direct”. operates between the airports a single ticket is €21
Both airports are in Paris. They might refund the cost of transport but if you only allowed 3 hours or less between flights in the first instance your stuffed.
Lucky,
What do you think is their responsibility towards customers who bought tickets thinking they’d fly to CDG, and have connecting flights with other airlines from CDG (on seperate reservations since La Compangie doesn’t have any code-shares)? Are they responsible for the expenses of changing or cancelling these tickets? Are there any DOT regulations relevant here?