La Compagnie – or ‘The Company’ – is a French operator of large aircraft. Its first flight took off from Paris CDG to Newark in July 2014 aboard a 74-seat Boeing 757-200. It now uses two A321LRs and will have four routes this year, including the new Newark to Milan and Paris to Tel Aviv. We take a look at this transporter.

Less than a year after La Compagnie’s first flight, a second line – London Luton to Newark – was inaugurated on April 27, 2015, using the B757. However, Luton did not last long, and attention then returned to Paris.

In 2014, Newark, the airline’s only destination, moved from CDG to Orly. At the time, it faced direct competition with two others: British Airways OpenSkies (B757 and B767-300ER) and Norwegian (B787-9 and B777-200 leased).

Nice, on the French Riviera, is considered a gateway to high-end places. Targeting this premium demand is what La Compagnie decided to do when it launched the summer season from Newark to Nice in May 2019. It was operated every four weeks by the 757, although it did not have It didn’t take long for the transporter to have two – and only – A321LRs arrived.

From 757 to 76 seats A321LR

La Compagnie’s two A321LRs were delivered in May 2019 (F-HBUZ) and September 2019 (F-HNCO), ch-aviation.comthe database reveals. Both planes have 76 seats in a fully extended four-seater cabin with a pitch of 58 ″. And both are leased to GECAS.

Of course, the carrier’s two existing routes this year (Orly-Newark and Nice-Newark) easily make it the longest A321neo routes in the world. Yesterday, Simple Flying discovered that the 50 longest non-stop services of the type were between 2,676 and 4,272 miles. La Compagnie’s offers – 4,007 miles (Nice) and 3,649 miles (Orly) – are the second and seventh longest in the world. However, they will be beaten when Newark at Milan start later this year.

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Be the sixth airline to Milan Malpensa

The Company will depart from Newark to Milan Malpensa from November 29. The 4,010 mile service will operate every four weeks. It will compete directly with United and indirectly with American, Alitalia, Delta and Emirates to New York JFK. As a result, The Company will be the sixth carrier off New York, although it obviously targets premium travelers.

Tel Aviv is coming; no longer purely long-haul

So far, the all-business airline has focused only on long-haul service, as you might expect. However, that should change with its upcoming 2,043 mile service from Orly to Tel Aviv.

This will target the huge point-to-point market from Paris and New York to Israel. It will have a fully coordinated one-stop-shop premium service to / from the US, timed as follows. The plane and crew will spend the night in Tel Aviv before returning early the next morning.

• Newark-Orly: 7:00 p.m. – 8:40 a.m. (the next day), flight B0101
• Orly-Tel Aviv: 10:10 a.m.-3:40 p.m., B0400
• Tel-Aviv-Orly: 05: 10-09: 00, B0401
• Orly-Newark: 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., B0100

What fare from Newark?

The question of the profitability of an operation of such low capacity and high unit cost must be asked. With just 76 seats on its A321LRs, it has two to three times fewer seats than most long-haul operators that use this type. To remedy this, La Compagnie must achieve a much higher unit revenue. At the same time, it seeks to reduce the costs of traditional carriers by offering lower fares and better value for money.

Booking data obtained from OAG Traffic Analyzer suggests that La Compagnie’s average business class fare in 2019 was $ 3,042 one-way, as shown below. This is the second lowest of the non-stop operators for which data is available. Meanwhile, DOT data from the T-100 suggests it had a siege load factor of 81%.

• Delta (CDG-JFK): approx. on average $ 4,336 one-way in business (excluding taxes / fuel surcharges)
• Air France (CDG-JFK): $ 3,532
• United (CDG-Newark): $ 3,500
• Air France (Orly-JFK): $ 3,112
• La Compagnie (Orly-Newark): $ 3,042
• American (CDG-JFK): $ 2,377

Have you ever flown with La Compagnie or would you like to do so? Let us know by commenting.