L'Avion

Elysair SAS, operating as L'Avion (French for "The plane"), was an airline headquartered in Paray Vieille Poste, France, near Wissous.[2]

L'Avion
IATA ICAO Callsign
A0 AVI ELYSAIR
Founded2006 by Frantz Yvelin
Ceased operations2009 (merged into OpenSkies)[1]
Operating basesOrly Airport
Fleet size2
Destinations2
Parent companyElysair SAS
HeadquartersParay Vieille Poste, France
Key people
Websitelavion.com

It operated business class-only long-haul service between Orly Airport, Paris and Newark Liberty International Airport in the USA.[3]

The airline was sold to British Airways and has since merged with OpenSkies, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways.

History

Founded by young French entrepreneur Frantz Yvelin and run by CEO Marc Rochet and Frantz Yvelin, L'Avion was the marketing name for Elysair. It had been created as Elysair but changed to use the marketing name "L'AVION" in late autumn 2006 after market research showed the new name tested well in the US and in France. L'Avion kept Elysair as its call sign and corporate name. The first flight was on 3 January 2007 from Paris to Newark. The airline did have plans to expand to the Middle East.[4]

Similar to the concept that was later used by Silverjet, L'Avion offered a premium-only service on TransAtlantic routes. It used two Boeing 757-200 aircraft, maintained by Lufthansa Technik (and modified by Gamco in Abu Dhabi) with detailed engineering and on site supervision at Gamco by Northview Aviation. H4 Aerospace helped to undertake certification. The Aircraft were configured with a total of only 90 seats in a 2x2 configuration. The seating and service level was all Business class. It offered laptop power at every seat, French food and wine, and seats that reclined by 140 degrees.[5] L'Avion featured "On-Demand" digEplayer XT individual units with a 7" screen.

L'Avion was wholly owned by Société de Participation Aérienne (SPA) and had about 100 employees in 2008. On 2 July 2008 British Airways announced it had agreed to buy L'Avion for £54 million. The deal was completed in July 2008 and resulted in the full integration of L'Avion with OpenSkies.[6] Operations of the two airlines were merged on 4 April 2009, with the former now operating as OpenSkies, a wholly British Airways owned French airline subsidiary.[3]

Destinations
 France
 United States

Fleet
L'Avion Boeing 757-200

When merged with OpenSkies, the L'Avion fleet consisted of the following aircraft:[7]

AircraftIn fleetPassengersNotes
Boeing 757-200290All aircraft transferred to OpenSkies at merger

See also

References
  1. "L'Avion - ch-aviation.com". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  2. "Contact." L'Avion. Retrieved on 1 September 2009. "Elysair SAS Batiment 519 5 allée du commandant Mouchotte Paray Vieille Poste 91781 Wissous Cedex "
  3. "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-04-03. p. 105.
  4. AMEInfo Archived March 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Comfort and quality / Our commitments / The company - L'Avion Archived February 18, 2007, at archive.today
  6. BA buys French airline for £54m
  7. "L'Avion (Elysair) Fleet Details and History - Planespotters.net Just Aviation". Planespotters.net. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
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