Boutique business class airline La Compagnie confirmed that it will be suspending its London – New York route, effective from Sunday 25 September 2016.
This decision has been made in view of a new economic climate in Europe, fuelled by Brexit, and that has already affected various significant players within the airline industry.
The news follows British Airways’ decision to drop one of its two daily all-business class services between London City airport and New York JFK from the end of October.
The decision, taken by CEO Frantz Yvelin and his team, has been made in order to enable the boutique airline to continue with its development.
The operation of the London – New York route will be suspended as La Compagnie looks to intensify its presence on the Paris – New York route, focusing on the tremendous success of its original route. The second daily flight from Paris to New York will be introduced in October 2016.
“This change in operations has not been taken lightly by La Compagnie teams. Despite very positive feedback from its valued UK and US customers on the London – New York route and encouraging performance levels (an average load factor above 77% since June 2016) this particular route economics remained fragile”, the airline said in a statement.
The outcome of the EU referendum in June 2016 has played its part in long term uncertainty for the airline industry and hence has required a detailed analysis of this new environment. Consequentially La Compagnie will focus on the Paris – New York route for the foreseeable future, with a view to reassessing the London landscape in the future.
“We would like to express our sincere thanks to each and every one of our passengers who have supported us since the launch of our London – New York operations from April 2015 to present. This has not been an easy decision for us to make but we would like to emphasise that this is the suspension of, not the cancellation of, the London – New York route.” Frantz Yvelin, Founder CEO of La Compagnie commented.
“We are the firmest believers of the UK’s unique market position, hence the decision to invest heavily in our London route for the past 16 months. Meanwhile, the result of the EU referendum has created an unprecedented level of legal and economic uncertainty for airlines that service Great Britain. Hence, our decision to accelerate development on our Paris – New York route where loads are already 80%+ as we recognise the increasing market demand in both the corporate and leisure segment”, he added.
The suspension will be effective as of Sunday 25 September, and La Compagnie will operate its last round trip flight between London – Luton and New York – Newark on Saturday 24 September 2016.
In order to minimise the impact for its affected passengers by the suspension of this route, all our customers due to travel beyond that date (the service will keep operating as per our schedule until then) will either be eligible for a full refund or will have the option to rebook onto the Paris – New York route free of charge.