In a couple of days, ultra low cost carrier French Bee will begin flying between Paris and Miami, bringing some much needed competition to the market.
In this post:
French Bee will fly A350s to Miami as of December 2022
As of December 15, 2022, French Bee will launch 3x weekly year-round flights between Paris Orly (ORY) and Miami (MIA). The flight will operate on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with the following schedule:
BF742 Paris Orly to Miami departing 2:30PM arriving 6:45PM
BF743 Miami to Paris Orly departing 9:00PM arriving 11:40AM (+1 day)
The flight will cover a distance of 4,586 miles, and is blocked at 10hr15min westbound and 8hr40min eastbound.
French Bee will use an Airbus A350-900 for this service, featuring a total of 411 seats — this includes 35 premium economy seats and 376 economy seats. Premium economy is in a 2-3-2 configuration with 36″ of pitch, while economy is in an incredibly tight 3-4-3 configuration, with 32″ of pitch.
For context, French Bee is an ultra low cost carrier that exclusively flies Airbus A350s (the airline also flies 480-seat Airbus A350-1000s), with a fleet of six of them. This new service to Miami complements French Bee’s existing service to the United States, to Los Angeles, Newark, and San Francisco. That San Francisco service continues to Tahiti.
My take on French Bee’s new service to Miami
The Paris to Miami market is an interesting one:
- Air France dominates, and operates up to two daily flights between Paris and Miami
- Even though American has a hub in Miami, interestingly the airline only flies between Paris and Miami seasonally; the route operates in the winter season, and not the summer season
- In 2019, Corsair briefly flew between Paris and Miami, but the route hasn’t operated since the start of the pandemic, so I guess that didn’t work out
Transatlantic demand into and out of Miami is always a bit different than other transatlantic markets. Europeans love Miami (though it’s more popular with those from the UK than France), and the demand cycle isn’t the same as other transatlantic routes.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Miami to Paris is American’s only route between the United States and Europe that’s operated in winter and not summer. That certainly suggests there’s strong demand for the route originating in Paris (and beyond), but not strong demand originating in Miami.
Having a second year-round competitor in the market will be good for consumers and competition. French Bee of course has very low per-seat costs, given how planes are configured. The airline has done well with its growth in the United States so far, and I imagine that will continue. I am curious, though, if French Bee can make this service work year-round.
Bottom line
French Bee will shortly be launching a new flight between Paris and Miami using an Airbus A350. This will be the only year-round competition that Air France faces in the market, as American only operates this route seasonally.
I’m curious to see whether French Bee can make this market work, given the struggles that other airlines have had here.
What do you make of French Bee’s new Miami service?
The Miami market more or less follows the snowbird market in where the high season is winter. Summer time its too hot.
A lot of European airlines fly to MIA only in the winter, which is the opposite of other transatlantic markets. Aer Lingus, KLM, SAS (on all routes), and Finnair (on all routes) are all ones that come to mind.
It's about time that an additional airline add year round service.
Now, don't be shocked to see American add year round service to try and knock French Bee out of the market.
Please say you'll be riding the inaugural!
Miami used to have some great low cost options to Europe in the 90's, like Balair to Zurich, Martinair to Amsterdam, as well as some very well priced consolidator fares to Paris on Air France. Now Miami has a lot more mainline service so the tradeoff has some benefits.
I flew Balair many times and it felt interchangeable with Swissair. Are there any consolidators that offer a better price to Zurich or Paris now?
Sorry bud, my travel agent days in Miami are long gone. I'd suggest contacting some local travel agents since they should be in the know.
Air France Actually flies up to 3x a week from Miami to Paris during the winter! The extra third service is flown Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Miami is only trans Atlantic route that is 1:1 summer-winter every other trans Atlantic route is summer heavy even NYC-london
Why are they set on MIA-ORLY?? MCO- would be a better destination flight imo.
Though MCO being a tourist destination, it may be out of their budget to operate flts in and out of there…
I agree. Orlando doesn't have any nonstop service to Paris, which is actually quite surprising to me. AF used to operate there a long time ago, and more recently Norwegian had a flight but that stopped when they went bankrupt. I'm sure there is enough demand for a flight, even if it's seasonal and not daily.
I'm surprised Corsair or French Bee haven't picked up that opportunity, let alone Air France which can offer connections.
The fact that it has been flown and dropped and never been permanent should tell you all you need to know about the (lack of) demand between Orlando and Paris. French want to go to beaches in the winter, not ripoff theme parks in a swamp.
"Why are they set on MIA-ORLY?"
The unsurprising answer, being that demand between France and S.Florida has historically been far stronger than to central Florida.
It’s worth pointing out that Paris already has a Disneyland close by.
The AA summer 2023 schedule has NOT yet been finalized . Right now they are at the mercy of Boeing, waiting for 787 aircraft delivery dates to be finalized…these 787 aircraft have been almost delayed 2 years because of Boeings problems…….several routes did not operate summer 2022 because of aircraft shortages
Forget Eastern, would love a French Bee premium economy review!
Agree
Regarding AA, but I believe their MIA-CDG flights only became seasonal this year due to the 787 delivery delays. Since they were short a few planes, they had to trim their summer schedule a bit (shuffling a few 772s and 787s around) and MIA-CDG was one of the casualties. I’m not sure if the route is set to resume this summer or not. That could still be TBD.
MIA-CDG on AA is seasonal again. It won't operate in Summer 2023.
French Bee will rely entirely on point to point traffic and low yield traffic.
The AF flight operates as a joint venture with Delta, Virgin and KLM, with a lot of connecting traffic, especially from the U.K. Scandinavia and Germany. Lots of cruise customers, ship crew as well as corporate. They also feature La Premiere cabin.
In addition AF operates from Miami to Guadeloupe. There was a service to Haiti, although now...
French Bee will rely entirely on point to point traffic and low yield traffic.
The AF flight operates as a joint venture with Delta, Virgin and KLM, with a lot of connecting traffic, especially from the U.K. Scandinavia and Germany. Lots of cruise customers, ship crew as well as corporate. They also feature La Premiere cabin.
In addition AF operates from Miami to Guadeloupe. There was a service to Haiti, although now that country is highly dangerous and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s suspended.
But French Bee has a codeshare with Eastern…in case you want to fly from Orly via Miami to Santo Domingo…
https://onemileatatime.com/insights/eastern-airlines/
Lol. Good luck with that