RUMOUR

Looks like Luton has come up trumps against the other London airport and the French business class carrier La Compagnie are to launch services from the airport to Newark from the 29th March this year...

Late last year they made it well known they wanted to start flights to Newark from London, and seemed to be publicly pitting Stansted, Luton and Gatwick against each other to try and grab the route. Going by rumours in other forums it seems Luton is the successful airport and the route is due to launch on the 29th March.
http://www.anna.aero/2014/12/10/lond...ing-for-all-business-la-compagnie/

Below is a link to the rumour, that is causing the stir, which was taken from the airlines newsletter emailed to someone in the other forum:
http://gyazo.com/8c5dfc17daa836c8c99c349e4f36aad8

This will be the second attempt by an airline to offer premium business travel from Luton to New York... Previously SilverJet attempted the route with 100 seat 767-200's, they had exclusive use of the old part of Luton's terminal as their own facility for travellers, since then this area is now used by airport staff and offices. It could be possible the airline is going to use one of the FBOs at the airport like Signature Flight Support or Harrods Aviation, who have sizeable business jet handing facilities...

Alternatively they might just offer passengers priority access through security and a private lounge in departures. At present the only executive lounge is the Aspire lounge, which is one of these Pay as You Use lounges for around £15-20 per use.

If the flight was to be departing around 9-11am, the terminal is usually a lot quieter and whole more pleasant atmosphere as all the airports based aircraft from the likes easyJet, Monarch, Thomson, Ryanair and first wave of Wizzair departures have left by this time.

The loads with SilverJet seemed pretty good, but the airline making money was the issue, and with the likes of BA defending their business market and high fuel prices, saw the writing in the wall. La Compagnie is owned by Air France, so should add some stability in this area.

La Compagnie website does state London services will be starting from this Spring and an announcement will be made shortly. I might have egg on my face if it proven not to be Luton!

iirc Silverjet had significant punctuality/reliability issues.

Also lack of Connectivity and only 2 flights per day were issues for them.

So only STN would be left without flights to NYC then.

Quoting gilesdavies (Thread starter): La Compagnie is owned by Air France, so should add some stability in this area.

I don't believe this is correct at all.

Quoting fururefa (Reply 3): Quoting gilesdavies (Thread starter): La Compagnie is owned by Air France, so should add some stability in this area. I don't believe this is correct at all.

I took the information from here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France#Subsidiaries_and_franchises

Quoting gilesdavies (Reply 4): I took the information from here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France#Subsidiaries_and_franchises

I think Wikipedia is faulty here. La Compagnie is a private company owned by several private investors and Air France is not involved.

Quoting gilesdavies (Reply 4):

Wikipedia seems to be wrong. I cannot find any information that Dreamjet (dba la compagnie) is owned by AF. It is founded by the same people who founded L'Avion.

On the plus side I really like the livery, I spent a little time watching their aircraft of FR24 the other night as it flew up the country, will be nice to see it do well, out of interest as it was mentioned on thst WIKI page how is BA Openskies doing?

LTN is going places under AENA, Props to them for stepping up.

Sun Express, Iberia (Air Nostrum) & now a connection to the States again. I think these guys have more of a chance than silverjet and its broken old 762 ever did.

Elal, Tarom, Iberia, Turkish Airlines Cargo. LTN rocking some flag carriers now  

La Compagnie has zero to do with Air France, frankly they are an annoyance to AF as AF have had to adjust some of their fares to NYC as a result to offer greater promotional fares for business class as result of La Compagnie.

Primary founder and CEO Frantz Yvelin was also co founder of business class airline L'Avion in 2006 which was sold to British Airways in 2008.
Start up equity of €30 million for La Compagnie was secured from European parties including from well know French businessman Charles Beigbeider and also the Rothschild Group.

[Edited 2015-01-15 16:52:28]

This is an ugly aircraft, and this is an awful name.

Quoting mercure1 (Reply 9): frankly they are an annoyance to AF as AF have had to adjust some of their fares to NYC as a result to offer greater promotional fares for business class as result of La Compagnie.

Frankly, I doubt they are a real annoyance to AF. Only one flight, sub-par product (it is a more a very nice premium Eco product rather than J), no connectivity on either side, no FFP, etc. All flight reports I read reported low loads. So, overall, a competitor, yes but not a real threat. If Aaf Adjusted some fares or made some promos in J, it's likely in link with other competition than La Compagnie. I doubt their ops are sustainable, unless they have an unlimited flow of money from their investors.

Anything that keeps the 757 flying i am super in favour of.