OpenSkies Will Start Flying A 767 Between New York And Paris

F-HAVN positioning to Norwich today 15th September. For painting most likely.

I always fly Open Skies, twice a year, since their beginning and if booked well in advance, their fares are the best I have found for the class of service. Their premium economy is a great deal, too, superior to any other premium eco that I have flown. I see La Compagnie is about to go down the tubes, and just before I checked their fares in prem eco for next March, and Open Skies is actually less. As for the big jet, I think part of the charm of OS is the smaller jet that can be de-boarded in a matter of minutes. Also, Orly is my Paris port of choice as it's smaller and closer to Paris than CDG. Please don't change things too much, OS.

and here is probable confirmation that an ex mainline British Airways 767 will be assigned to Open Skies http://www.thebasource.com/withdrawn-british-airways-b767-300er-g-bnwi-positions-to-cambridge/

I read the source article. It says that it is going to be a 767 from BA with a 24/24/141 seating arrangement. I have flown OpenSkies 4 times in the past two years. It would have been 5 but they overbooked Premium Economy and I got a Club World flight through Heathrow to Orly. Club World is much better than Biz Bed but getting the "middle" two seats and transferring in LHR were just not worth it. OpenSkies is an odd bird. I like the idea of direct ORY-NYC flights. There is a definitely a market but the way that they are approaching the market leaves me dumbfounded. They have three 757 that are over 20 years old. During the peak season they run three flights a day. Where is the margin to deal with unexpected events? Those events happen regularly. F-HAVN landed in Boston on a NYC to Paris flight two years ago. The passengers finally got back to Paris two days later. Unfortunately, they ended up in CDG and needed to get across Paris to ORY for connecting flights. In January 2016, F-HAVN had some more problems. This time the passengers ended up taking AFR7 to CDG the next day and F-HAVN flew to Atlanta where it stayed for a few weeks. The lamentable situation with the aircraft is so obvious. I was hoping that OpenSkies would go with new aircraft but that is a "rock and a hard-spot" problem for BA. An A321 like BA flys from Gatwick to NYC would be nice but OpenSkies would have to add flights in order to compensate for the smaller capacity. New 787s to replace the 757s would be good but there is no way the OpenSkies could fill them on a regular basis. So, what is the solution from BA? It is the same as they did with F-GPEK: transfer an aircraft from BA's fleet to OpenSkies. Unfortunately, the age of their 767 vary from 17 to 26 years-old. In other words, OpenSkies get a old aircraft to add to its old fleet. It looks like this going to be the fate of OpenSkies: making due with what they got. At least, F-HAVI just came out an extended maintenance at Hahn. The bottom line is that OpenSkies is a good idea but the next time that I have to go to New York, I flying an Air France A388 from CDG.

I think the BA configuration may not work too well with Open Skies, and think Open Skies can add more premium economy seats, while reducing the amount of economy seats. I have a feeling that many people chooses Open Skies because of its affordable premium Biz seats. They are quite a nice bargain, and something that Air France can't really fight against. They should focus on their niche. With a larger Biz cabin, I am a bit worried that the lounge in Orly can't handle the increased passenger load. It is already fairly crowded now especially when there is a BA flight flying around the same time. The terminal is also very small too, so it will get more crowded when there is one of those AF HD 77Ws to those former French colonies and Open Skies 767 flights operating at the same time frame. Anyway with a larger cabin, there will hopefully be more staffing and the F/As will be less stressful and can provide better service than now. Adrian